


Justice Among Criminals

by BlueTwilight



Category: MindCrack
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate universe - Mafia, Gen, Saladcrack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-08
Updated: 2014-05-15
Packaged: 2018-01-11 15:26:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 30,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1174693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueTwilight/pseuds/BlueTwilight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before rounding the corner (the same corner that the dead man walked past only minutes ago), I looked back at Kurt. He was knelt over the body now with a frown on his face. It was my first time seeing him since I missed the shot that would have otherwise killed him. I had one wild, fleeting urge to pull out my handgun and take aim, but I restrained myself. Some other day, perhaps. But I knew, deep in my rotten heart, that I would never make that shot. For Kurt, I would miss every time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Blue

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't written in chronological order... I'll post a complete timeline at the end of the last part. Be aware that, although this is Saladcrack, it has a heavy emphasis on Salad. Each part is named after the character whose perspective it's in.
> 
> Thank you Voo, for being my beta!

Everything was still. Of course, this wasn’t really the case, but it was how I prepared myself. I imagined everything as if it were frozen in time, sometimes even closed my eyes if my imagination wasn’t up to par. That wasn’t necessary this time, though. Clearly, there was no movement on the top floor of my abandoned building, or any movement in any of the many floors, for that matter. This was at least partly true, since I was the only living thing (aside from one rather annoying fly) that dared to climb this high on an unstable building. The place was an old office space, now under construction because of a sinking foundation. Irrelevant… the only thing that mattered was that it was empty, it was tall, and it was overlooking a busy street. Speaking of the street, there was no movement on the road below my dirty window, either. This was a blatant lie, but I chose to believe it. In reality, the street was bustling with activity. There was a traffic jam, as was to be expected at this time of morning. People going to their boring office jobs doing god knows what for minimum wage. It sickened me, but what was worse were the pedestrians who thought they were so clever for walking this morning instead of getting caught in the frustrating traffic. They rushed by my building in droves, completely unaware of what lurked above them. They had no reason to fear me though, not today anyway.

I caught myself thinking too much about the mundane lives of those below me, and began to focus in earnest on the task at hand. I imagined all of the cars stopped (which wasn’t too difficult, considering the snail’s pace they were moving at to begin with) and all of the people frozen, mid-step. All of the mindless birds fluttering their wings hung, suspended, in the morning sky. All that mattered and all that could move was myself, my gun, and my target. I knelt down behind the rifle, fidgeting with the scope one last time. Everything was prepared, all I was waiting for was the go-ahead. It was entirely possible, even likely, that I wouldn’t get to take the shot today. It was, after all, only the first try. So many things could go wrong, causing me to abort the mission. The target could spontaneously decide to walk down a different street today. He could get a call on his phone, calling him away to an urgent meeting. Or, more likely, the wind could suddenly pick up, making the shot too risky. All of this preparation could easily go to waste, but I didn’t mind. I would just come back another day, and if that day was wrong, I’d come back another. I was nothing if I wasn’t patient.

The white noise of a two-way radio shook me out of my trance. I hastily picked the radio up off of the table. It was a primitive method of communication, but we couldn’t use phones for fear of the police tracing our calls.

“Blue, do you read?” The feminine voice on the other end was difficult to hear over the white noise.

“I read.”

“Mission confirmed, take the shot.” I grinned, glad that the day’s work wouldn’t be in vain. I must have been basking in the perfection of it too long though, because the voice grew worried. “Blue? Do you read?”

“Yeah I read. Estimated time of arrival?” I could hear a little sigh of relief on the other end of the line. What, did she think I had spontaneously dropped dead?

“Approximately 7:26. That’s three minutes.” I glanced at my watch, confirming the time.

“I can count, Voo, thanks.” It wasn’t really an ideal time for teasing, but it was so entertaining to poke at Voo when she was stressed. I could hear her huff indignantly into the receiver.

“I know!” There was a moment of silence, broken only by Voo’s annoyed tone. “Good luck Blue… don’t screw up this time.” And with that, she hung up.

What?! How could she remind me of that now! That… that was different. That time, I only had one shot. There was no coming back another day if the wind wasn’t right. Of course I missed, the pressure was enormous! Voo didn’t understand; I doubt she had ever even shot a sniper rifle, much less had to shoot one with only five minute’s warning. I briefly considered pressing the talk button again to remind her of all her shortcomings. In fact, her mistakes were part of the reason I had to take that shot in the first place! But no… I only had two minutes now. I slammed my the radio back down onto the table, grinding my teeth. Just then, the radio crackled to life again. 

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.” It was too late now though, Voo. I said nothing, however, resolving to talk to her when this was over or, more likely, just let it go.

I fidgeted where I knelt, getting into a comfortable position. I checked my rifle again, making sure everything was in order. The angle of my weapon was positioned perfectly so that I could get a clear shot of the street corner, and this was the spot I was watching intently. If everything went to plan, the target should’ve been rounding the corner of 5th street in a minute and a half… one minute… thirty seconds… ten seconds… 

There he was. I had studied pictures of his face and stature to know exactly what he would look like, as per usual. He was a relatively young man, around my age. He was tall, bulky, and had dark hair. His eyes were a boring brown, though I couldn’t see their color with the angle of the sun. I glanced at an orange flag that I had tied to a lightpost many hours ago. It hung limp, which told me that the wind was eerily still; a perfect day. I didn’t even really know why I was killing him. Something to do with drugs… I adjusted the angle of my gun to accommodate his speed of foot. All I knew was that the job paid handsomely, and that was all I needed to know. Breath in, breath out. Repeat. In the back of my mind, I wondered what he was thinking at that moment. Would I be interrupting a train of thought? Shame. I pulled the trigger.

It was obvious that I had hit my target. Through the scope I could see bits of skull and brain matter flying in all directions, soiling the cloths of the people he had been walking next to. I could faintly hear a woman scream, but I didn’t bother to figure out who it was. I didn’t linger to watch the aftermath, though it was always amusing to me to see the reactions of passersby. It must have been startling, to see a man’s head explode in front of your eyes. Instead, I began packing up my things, mechanically but deliberately. It was essential that I got out of there as fast as possible, since Kurt has been known to be extremely quick to arrive at the scene of the crime. In my haste to pack up, I almost forgot to notify Voo. I picked up the radio and said, in a voice that was so cold it surprised even me, “Mission accomplished. Target eliminated.”

I expected no response, and received none. What did one say in a situation like this? “Good job”? No one gets a pat on the back for killing a guy. I finished tidying up by wiping the room down with a clean rag. Not that it was really necessary, as I was wearing latex gloves so as not to leave behind fingerprints. But I was nothing if I wasn’t paranoid. Or patient. Take your pick. To finish the job off, I pulled a handful of blue flower petals out of my backpack and tossed them into the room haphazardly. Now the job was truly complete.

I pulled a hood over my head to protect my identity as I slipped out the back door of the building, gulping in the cold morning air as if it were a drug. The plan had been to take a few backroads until I arrived at the place where I was supposed to meet Voo, but something about 5th street called me back. My head turned and feet carried me back to the front of the building. What was this feeling? Some people I knew had a pathological need to examine the scene of their own crimes, but I was not one of those people. Something was different this time, though. I just had to see it.

To my surprise, there were already red and blue lights illuminating the street and reflecting off of the windows of surrounding buildings. The light always reminded me of a colorful disco ball, and the thought made me snicker. However, the smile was swiftly wiped off of my face as I examined the crime scene. There was the usual, of course; the dead body, the hushed atmosphere, the people crowded around craning their necks for a look. Some were so bold as to pull out their phones, trying to take pictures of the cops, the crowd, the dead man, and god knows what else. It was like they felt safe in their crowds, safe enough to leer at a dead body and tell stories to one another about how it happened. They weren’t so brave, though, when a healthy man walking alongside them suddenly exploded into mushy brain matter and sharp shards of bone. They weren’t brave when it mattered. Their indifference made me sick, but that was not the reason for my frown. The reason was standing right in front of me, mere meters from where I stood, frozen. He was here, now, the only shot I ever missed.

Detective Kurt Mac had always been quick to a crime scene, but this was beyond quick. How could he have possibly been here, faster than even the local police? He was talking to one of the cops who had just arrived; one of the fat, donut-eating slobs that called themselves defenders of the law. Unsure of what to do, I decided to follow my own momentum so as not to look suspicious. Turning back into the alleyway would have been a dead giveaway, not that Kurt’s attention was turned toward me anyway. I watched him as I walked, slowly, across the street. He must have been in the area, heard the gunshot, and ran to investigate. How was I not aware of this? Anti usually kept me and the rest of Salad up to date on where all of the detectives were and what they were investigating. How had she let him get here, so close to what she knew would be my next crime scene? Granted, she didn’t actually know this was where my next mission was… high profile, you see. But still, she should have told me.

It seemed like an eternity before I finally got to the crowd of people. I contemplated pushing my way through to the front to see if I could hear what Kurt and the police were saying, but immediately thought better of it. I was supposed to be gone five minutes ago; sticking around here was ill advised. I lingered in the back of the crowd for a moment before slipping away, yet again unnoticed.

Before rounding the corner (the same corner that the dead man walked past only minutes ago), I looked back at Kurt. He was knelt over the body now with a frown on his face. It was my first time seeing him since I missed the shot that would have otherwise killed him. I had one wild, fleeting urge to pull out my handgun and take aim, but I restrained myself. Some other day, perhaps. But I knew, deep in my rotten heart, that I would never make that shot. For Kurt, I would miss every time.


	2. White

The guy had a nice house. I would even go so far as to call it a mansion… a mansion designed by an OCD architect. Everything was symmetrical, down to the little ornamental bushes that littered the front yard. The grass, wet still from last night’s rain, was cut so neatly that one might mistake the yard for a golf course. I didn’t care for the two fountains that mirrored each other from across the driveway. Though the moonlight reflecting off of the burbling water was, admittedly, quite pretty, but the design of the stone fountains was tacky. In fact, everything about the house seemed fake, right down to the stupid, ornamental bushes. It would be a pleasure to ruin it all, much like messing up a patch of perfectly smooth, pristine snow.

I had to remind myself, then, that I couldn’t waste time destroying the family’s front lawn. I had to be even quicker than usual today. Not because of the police… the fear of being caught was still there to an extent, but I was fairly confident in my own abilities at this point. As long as I laid low and didn’t make too much of a fuss, I didn’t have much to fear from old Vetches. No, the threat today was much greater than that from my detective pals. I cursed under my breath at the thought of them. They had been terrorizing Salad members for over a month now, ever since they robbed Shadowrunner and Thero. Yet still no one seemed to know who they were. They tended to show up after the job was already done, then reap the rewards of everyone’s work. It was infuriating beyond belief, to the point where people were starting to take jobs farther and farther away from base. Some were of the opinion that the Salad should move bases and, even though no one dared to imply it, some were likely considering leaving. It didn’t seem to matter how far away we moved, though, the others would always find us. 

Though I had heard a plethora of stories surrounding these mission-hijackers, I had been lucky enough to never actually encounter them myself. I assumed I wouldn’t find them here today, either, since I highly doubted they would know about this particular job. It was a very secret, solo mission I was on today… not even Kawa knew about it. Lioness had given me the job directly; she said that it was very sensitive and important. I didn’t even know how Lioness was able to contact me, since anyone wanting to use our services usually had to go through Kawa. But I wasn’t about to complain about the generous amount of money I was being offered. A lot of cash was at stake here, not to mention my reputation. I wasn’t about to let anyone mess this up for me.

I had been staking out this house for a few hours already, and was beginning to get impatient. There was still a light on in what I assumed to be one of the kid’s bedrooms. I couldn’t risk them hearing me moving around in their house, so I was forced to wait for the brat to fall asleep. The man I was about to kill had three sons and, of course, a wife. He was the manager of a moderately large advertising agency, but not so large that it could have possibly netted him the kind of money needed to buy _this_ house. I didn’t know the details, but I inferred from what Lioness told me about him that he got most of his cash from dealing with the wrong side of the law. Nothing like what I did, I was sure; I couldn’t imagine a “businessman by day, hitman by night” type of scenario. It was too ridiculous. No, I imagined he was caught up in some type of illegal trade. Perhaps illegal guns, drugs, information… but nothing too damning. What I couldn’t fathom is why Lioness would want him dead so badly that she would personally seek me out and pay such a large sum to get the job done right. Maybe there was no reason. After all, Lioness has been known to enjoy doing things just to stir the pot.

Just then, the light in the second floor window flicked out and all was dark in the mansion. I smiled to myself, but resolved to wait at least another half hour for the kid to fall asleep. Once my time-out was up, I moved into action. I had visited this house many times before in preparation for this night, so I knew the ins and outs. Being that the father was involved in illegal activities, he was likely to go the extra mile to protect his home. I expected some serious home security, but it was no trouble. A mild inconvenience perhaps, but I always found my way in somehow. I didn’t bother checking any of the first floor doors or windows, since that was where they thought I would go first. These fancy houses sometimes had infrared cameras guarding the front door, or the hallway, or the living room. Unlikely, maybe, but paranoia was what made me good at my job. Luckily, the homeowners had a fondness for plant life, and so I used the trees that grew next to the house to reach the second floor windows.

After having tried three windows with no luck, one of the glass panes in the back of the house finally gave way. I stifled a laugh at my good fortune and quietly pulled open the window, peering inside as soon as my head could fit through the gap. The room was lit up with an eerie, blue glow coming from a nightlight in the corner. In fact, everything in the room looked as though it was some shade of blue even without the nightlight. Dark blue walls, dresser, and bedsheets. This wasn’t the only theme, though; it appeared as though the occupant was a fan of racecars. More like an obsessed fan, really. I guessed that it was the bedroom of the youngest son, only eight years old if I remembered correctly. Sure enough, I could just make out a lump under the sheets of a car-shaped, twin bed.

I hesitated before continuing, making sure that the slight rising and falling of the lump under the blankets remained slow and rhythmic. He had no idea what he was about to wake up to. I felt a little bad for the kid; after all, he likely didn’t even know what his father was doing or why he was about to be killed. I didn’t feel bad enough, though. I silently crept across his room and out the door, into the vast hallway beyond it. The hall was darker than the kid’s bedroom, and with many doors branching off of it. I tried a couple of them, careful to make no sound as I turned the doorknobs, but none led to the room I was looking for. Finally, just as I was beginning to get frustrated by the size of the house, I opened the door that belonged to the master bedroom.

This bedroom, much like the rest of the house, was both symmetrical and had an air of elegance about it. They seemed to like to flaunt their wealth in the form of furniture, because what other reason would there be to buy a bed frame that was decorated in swirls of gold? I supposed it could have been fake… if I were with one of the many thieves of the Salad, they would have probably been able to tell me. But I was no thief, and so I had no interest in their elaborate choice in furniture. What I cared about was lying in the bed. Two lumps, one larger than the other, each seeming to breath in sync.

“How cute.” I muttered as I slowly unsheathed my knife. I was told that I wasn’t allowed to play with this one; I had to get in and out as quickly as possible. What a shame… I would have loved to hear him scream… I leaned over the man, who was muttering incoherently in his sleep. He furrowed his brows, as though he had seen something unpleasant. Was he having a nightmare? If so, it would be one he never woke up from.

So intent was I on my target that I didn’t notice when another figure entered the room. I didn’t realize anything was amiss until I heard two gunshots from behind me, each of the bullets lodging themselves perfectly in the skulls of the sleeping couple. I was so close to the head of the sleeping man that his blood squirted all over my face. I reeled back away from the now dead man and spun around to see who had so rudely murdered my would-be victim, but my eyes were stinging and clouded from the blood that had tainted them. I wasn’t so blind, though, that I couldn’t recognize that the murderer was pointing something at me…

A sudden shot of adrenaline gave me the strength to throw myself sideways onto the bed. I swore I could’ve heard the bullet whistling past my ear harmlessly. My brain went into some sort of survival mode in that instant, working in overdrive to find a way out of this death-chamber. I saw the open window to my right… was that open before? No time to question it. I rolled off of the bed, and another shot was fired in my direction. I chanced a brief look at the killer again, my eyes slightly clearer now. I had enough time to see that it was a woman with long, red hair and bright green eyes before she adjusted her aim to my new location. Without a second thought, I sprang forward with all my strength and threw myself out of the second-story bedroom window.

I take back what I said earlier; I love ornamental bushes. One of the big, sphere-shaped ones caught my fall. Its branches cut up my arms pretty badly, but at least I hadn’t cracked my skull on the hard ground. There was a moment where my body was in a state of shock; I couldn’t move even if I had wanted to. Through the branches and needles of the bush, I watched the window. I was so sure I would see the woman with her gun, peering out the window. It wasn’t like I was difficult to find, so she could have easily finished me off while I laid stupidly in the bush. But no such figure appeared.

The sound of two more gunshots shook me out of my stupor. Perhaps the kids had gone into their parent’s room to investigate, and she was taking care of them too. Whatever it was, I had to get out of there. With a great effort, I pushed myself out of the prickly bush and stumbled to my feet. The night air burned in my lungs as I sprinted across the impeccable lawn, now made imperfect by the destruction of the spherical bush. I ran without concern for my surroundings for a few, long minutes before my muscles screamed at me to stop. I did so cautiously, still convinced that I was being chased by the gun-wielding woman. Despite my paranoia, however, the rational side of me was fairly sure that I was not being followed.

It was amazing how quickly the tides had turned. One moment, I was the hunter and the next, the hunted. There was no doubt in my mind that the woman was one of the others that I had heard about… who else would show up randomly to steal someone else’s kill? Once the looming threat of death faded out of the back of my mind, I was furious. How in the hell did they find out about this job, anyway?! It was a private mission! I was in deep shit now… what would I tell Lioness? Had I the energy, I would have punched something. But instead I leaned against a light post, exhausted, its glow illuminating my frame like a spotlight. 

I had to go to Kawa, there was no doubt. An attempted murder on a member of the Salad was everyone’s business, Lioness’s secrets be damned. As far as I knew, this rival group had never attacked any of us outright before. They were getting bolder, and Kawa’s passive attitude toward them had to stop. We needed to take action, though what kind of action I did not know. It wasn’t for me to decide.

Still shaken from the encounter, I pushed off of the light post uneasily. My left shoulder ached from landing on it when I jumped; so achy that not even stretching or massaging it eased the pain. I gave up on the endeavor and started the slow, stiff walk back to base. I looked toward the sky as I walked, but the moon and stars smiled down on me as if mocking my dismal failure, their shaming almost palpable. I changed my mind and stared down at my feet.


	3. Voo

Never had I dreaded entering the underground Salad base more than I did now. The feeling could have been equated to coming home after sneaking out of the house, knowing that your parents know what you’ve done. I knew that the reception was not going to be one of triumph, as we had hoped. The only word I could think to describe my vision of it was volcanic… perhaps with an undercurrent of anguish. 

I stole a glance at the woman walking next to me. The deep frown on Ginge’s face was uncharacteristic of my usually bubbly, giggly partner. We had been walking in silence for quite some time now; first trudging through the thick undergrowth of the forest, then jogging through the streets of the inner city, now walking the deserted roads that would soon lead us to the Salad headquarters. At first the retreat had been exhilarating; the adrenaline coupled with the crisp, night air giving me a euphoric high. But then the bad news came pouring over the radio that was still clutched in my hands, now coated with sweat and even a few poorly hidden tears. Maybe it was silly to cry over something like this… after all, they were my co-workers. I didn’t even know their real names. But I’d grown to see everyone in the Salad as a part of my family, and could only hope that they saw me in a similar light. 

Just then, a sickening thought occurred to me. What if no one cared? I imagined walking into hell as I entered the Salad HQ, but what if it was just business as usual? After all, we had technically succeeded at our mission… what if people were _celebrating_? My stomach turned at the thought. It could have very easily been me who was killed instead; in fact, it nearly was. There were more guards than we’d expected; if we hadn’t ducked into the cover of the trees when we did, they might have overwhelmed us. So what would have happened then? Surely Ginge would have grieved. We’d done so much together, she couldn’t possibly be indifferent toward my death. But everyone else… I wasn’t so sure.

I looked down at the communications device in my hand again, wondering for the hundredth time whether I should have said something, or if I should say something now. Once we’d gotten out of the woods (both literally and metaphorically), we were too far away to get a good signal on the radio. But now that we were close to the headquarters, maybe it would be polite to say something. Ask how everyone was doing, or something of that nature.

“I wouldn’t say anything… she might get mad. You know how she is.” I blinked, wondering how Ginge had known what I was thinking. My partner looked nervous, so I did as she suggested and didn’t say a word into the radio. 

The first rays of light were just beginning to peek over the horizon when Ginge and I reached the unassuming warehouse that served as the front door for the Salad headquarters. The warehouse itself was long abandoned and was starting to fall into disrepair, but we didn’t use the actual building for much of anything anyway. The real meat of the Salad HQ was underneath, in a hidden, expansive basement. Much less conspicuous than a hotel, thankfully. Ginge and I picked our way through the rubble that littered the floor of the building with practiced ease, but took our sweet time getting to the metal door that guarded a downward spiralling staircase. The door was tucked into a corner, hidden from sight. In all my time here, I’d never known of anyone unwanted stumbling on this place.

Before I could even put my hand on the doorknob, I heard the pounding of angry feet stomping up the staircase beyond the door. Ginge and I barely had enough time to leap back before the door slammed open, hitting the wall with a sound that resonated loudly through the abandoned building. The woman who had opened the door looked frazzled for a moment at the sight of us, but she quickly recovered her anger.

“You two! Some distraction that was!” A soot-covered figure pushed past us, her loose ponytail nearly hitting me in the face. Ginge and I looked at each other grimly. It was a good thing neither of us were confrontational. Had it been anyone else in our place, we might have reamed Blue a new one for her own part in this failure. But, as it was, we both kept our mouths shut and let the sniper blow off some steam by kicking a plank of wood.

“Time to go face the music, I think.” Ginge muttered beside me in a voice low enough that only I could hear. “You coming?” She gestured toward the metal door. I hesitated, turning to look at Blue. Without anyone to fuel it, her anger seemed to have subsided quickly. She was now leaning against a support beam, watching the sun filter through the tattered ceiling of the warehouse with her back toward us. She looked so tired and forlorn, it made my heart ache.

“No, not yet. You go.” Ginge grunted, obviously displeased that she would have to face our mission leader’s wrath without me, but left me alone with Blue without further complaint. The noise that the heavy door made when it closed behind her had a sort of finality about it. Blue inclined her head toward the sound, but didn’t turn to look for the source of it. A feeling of uncertainty fluttered in my chest as I took a few steps toward her, shuffling my feet as I went.

“You look like you could use a shower.” As far as conversations starters went, that was perhaps not my best choice. It was true, though; Blue was covered in ash and smelled like burning wood. She must have been standing close to the explosion. The other woman just grunted noncommittally, which sparked a stubborn streak in me. “No, you don’t get to be all distant with me… I won’t allow it!” With that, I plopped down on the dusty floor next to her, patting the ground beside me invitingly before crossing my arms tightly around my chest and staring off at some point in the distance. Blue sighed and sank slowly to the ground, clearly too tired to fight my stubbornness.

“If you could have just distracted them for another couple of minutes, they could have gotten out before everything went to shit.” She ran a hand through her dirty hair, pulling out her ponytail as she went. I’d never seen her hair down before, and thought it might have been pretty if it wasn’t so covered in soot. I brushed a strand of loose, blonde hair out of my own face self-consciously, but decided against taking out the braid that sat neatly between my shoulderblades. 

“Well, Ginge and I did our best. There were more of them then we thought there’d be, and they were starting to flank us. So we had to retreat. We didn’t know…” I let the rest of my sentence trail off into nothingness, my defensive energy quickly evaporating. Blue drew her knees up to her chest, making herself look smaller than ever.

“It’s not really your fault.” She pressed her palm to her forehead and closed her eyes. I half-expected tears to roll down her cheeks; almost wished it to happen, just so that I wouldn’t be the only one to cry over this. But her face remained resolutely dry. I nudged her shoulder with mine in a way that I hoped was reassuring.

“She must be pretty mad at you, huh?” Blue barked a quick, humorless laugh at that.

“‘Mad’ doesn’t begin to describe it. She’s livid! She doesn’t understand though… I couldn’t have possibly made that shot. A miracle worker couldn’t have possibly made that shot. I knew right from the start that it wasn’t a good position, but everyone was rushing me and they made it seem like I wouldn’t have to shoot, anyway. That, on top of the hideous amount of wind… she has no right to blame me for this.” Like the good friend I was, I listened attentively and nodded sympathetically. I was as surprised as anyone to hear that Blue missed a shot, but if she said that it was impossible then I believed her.

“Well, you should tell them that! Just say you’re sorry, I’m sure she’ll come around.” Blue looked at me as though I had sprouted another head, then laughed dryly again, tipping her head back as she did so. 

“What do you think I’ve _been_ doing for the past two hours? I’ve apologized a million times, but you should know by now that she doesn’t forgive easily.” I fidgeted uncomfortably where I sat, upset at my friend’s resolute pessimism. I wanted nothing more than to help her out of this rut, but didn’t know how to go about it. 

“It’s not your fault, though. _I_ don’t blame you.” The comment was meant to be factual, not sentimental, but Blue seemed to take it that way. Her expression softened and she lost a little bit of the tension in her shoulders, which somehow only served to make her look more exhausted and defeated. I wondered if I looked the same way.

“Thanks. Doesn’t stop me from blaming myself, though.” Blue stood up stiffly, leaning heavily on the support beam behind her. She took a step forward before looking back at me, her figure silhouetted against the light of the rising sun. “I’m going to try to get some sleep… I got the impression I’m not wanted down there. You should go talk to them.” She jerked her head toward the metal door behind me. I looked at it wistfully, now dreading the post-mission meeting even more.

“I’ll try to calm her down.” The only help I could offer was to attempt to get our mission leader to simmer down, but by the way Blue snorted at me she obviously didn’t think it would work. She seemed to reevaluate her reaction, though, and her expression turned apologetic.

“Thank you.” I waved my hand dismissively and stood up as well. As Blue walked away, I felt a strong and unexpected urge to hug her. I may not have been well-versed in how criminals conducted themselves, but I certainly knew that they didn’t hug each other on a regular basis. Nevertheless, I ran up to Blue and threw my arms around her. She stiffened, surprised by my embrace, but thankfully didn’t question it. Her hand patted my shoulder awkwardly, nearly making me giggle. Eventually she pried herself away, shot me a quick smile, and continued on her way. I watched her until she disappeared around the corner before walking back to the metal door, squaring my shoulders in an effort to brace myself, and stepping through the threshold of the Salad headquarters.


	4. Antiloquist

I hold that the hardest part of my job was distinguishing between two lives. One of them was that of a normal, law-abiding citizen. More than that, even; in that life, I was a detective. Fighting for justice, preserving morality, and all that. In the other life, though, I rebelled against all things just. I was the informant, double agent, infiltrator… pick any title. It was burdensome, though, leading a dual life. The average individual would never understand the weight of it, not even my fellow Salad members. Some of my fellow criminals envied my position among the group that called themselves the “Mindcrackers,” but they were sadly mistaken in their jealousy. These lives that I lead were often muddled together; each running through my mind at the same frequency while I lay in bed at night, trying to get some rest for the next gruelling day. To label one of them as “real” and one as “fake” was inconceivable. Rather, they worked together, but to what end? I settled on the notion that my actions were motivated purely by the desire for excitement, but I felt that there was something more driving me to my devious ways. 

It was surprisingly often that these ponderous thoughts entered my mind, as though I were obsessed over the meaninglessness of my own duality. In the grand scheme of things, I knew that my tribulations were insignificant, but that never stopped me from regarding them endlessly. One may have made the assumption that my ponderous nature originated from the man who was walking beside me at that moment, but they would have been incorrect. I had always been, and likely always would be, a thoughtful person, but I grant that it may have been amplified by Pakratt’s influential ways.

I glanced over at Pak, then, and he, catching me looking at him, smiled down at me. For all his pondering, the man really was dim-witted if, after all the time we spent together, he still failed to see my disloyalty. Or maybe I wasn’t giving myself enough credit; maybe I had mastered the craft of deception well enough to fool even the most intelligent of individuals. I supposed I would never know.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get them next time.” Pak’s gruff voice shook me from my thought. I realized that I had been staring at him, making him think that I wanted something of him. Heat rose to my cheeks as I discerned my mistake, and I went back to staring forward as usual. But I had initiated conversation (albeit in a roundabout way), and so was forced to sustain it.

“I don’t doubt that.” My own voice was cooly feminine, such a contrast to Pak’s more husky tone. “I just… don’t want to see more people get hurt.” The case we had been investigating together on this day was not one of extreme importance to me, but it was imperative that I feign empathy for the dozens of lives that were lost. The perpetrator was not one who I was well aware of; likely a foolish man (forgive me for the assumption, but these things tend to be orchestrated by men) acting on his own accord for some less-than-noble cause. It was, however, impressive that he managed to blow up multiple major government buildings without aid, and to top it all has yet to be caught. It had been a month since the bombings started, and not even I had the slightest clue who was the cause. Not that I much cared to know, but again… the mirage. People had to at least be under the impression that I cared.

There was a sudden pressure on my shoulder, and I realized with a start that Pak had his arm around me. 

“I know, me either.” His warmth enveloped me like a blanket, spreading through me in places that our bodies weren’t even touching. And then the moment was over, and we were left walking in silence as usual. The contact was so brief and his whisper so quiet, that I questioned whether or not it had even happened. A flicker of time in the vast emptiness of eternity. It was hateful to think that I all but missed this precious moment while wrapped in my own thoughts. I sighed and hugged my arms tightly to my chest, even though I wasn’t cold.

The remainder of the walk passed without further conversation. Pak rushed ahead as we approached the precinct, holding the glass door open for me like an obedient puppy. He had done this so many times in the past that it became tedious to say “thank you” every time, so instead I merely bowed my head gratefully as I crossed the threshold.

The precinct was oddly subdued for the current time of day. I noticed only a few detectives standing around, each with a coffee in his hand, talking casually in the lounge. Upon my entering the precinct, Pak rushed off to grab a drink of his own. I did not follow in his footsteps, as I had a distaste for coffee that not even Pak had been able to rid me of, though not for lack of trying. While my keen eyes swept over the rather insignificant office space, I spotted a man huddled over his desk, pouring over an impressive stack of paperwork. As I looked on, he ran a hand through his messy hair and sighed frustratedly. Kurt was always one to become absorbed in his work, but even so, this level of devotion was startling. Seeing that something was abnormal, I pounced immediately. It was my duty to keep up to date on the detectives and their work, which meant always knowing who they were targeting. Kurt was especially important, since I had been getting an awful lot of shit from Blue about how I wasn’t keeping her well informed enough. I begged to differ, but concluded that the issue was not worth arguing.

“Hey, Kurt. New vic, I take it?” I despised the detectives and their colloquialisms, but was forced to accommodate them in an effort to seem inconspicuous. Kurt looked up from his work, seemingly startled at my approach. When he turned to me, he exposed the still-raw skin that covered the right side of his body. It had been well over a month since the explosion, but Kurt hadn’t quite recovered from the angry burns that had engulfed one side of his neck, shoulder, and torso. The burns would leave no long-term damage, so I was told, but they would remain pink and sore for quite some time. Neither of us mentioned it though, as it was old news by now.

“Oh, uh, yeah.” He placed a self-conscious hand over the image of the dead body, as though trying to shield my innocent eyes from the bloody mess that was the victim’s head. I scoffed; this was nothing compared to what I had seen first-hand.

“You’ve sure been getting a lot of case work recently, and so soon after your return… maybe you should take a break?” Kurt was a difficult one to get information from. He was so infuriatingly shy that he rarely discussed his cases with anyone, which was a problem for me. I was forced to use round-a-bout tactics to persuade him to talk, which was especially annoying when I was pressed for time. I stole a glance at the break room door, aiming to be finished with this conversation before Pak emerged with his coffee.

“Oh no, I couldn’t… couldn’t do that!” Even as the words left his lips, Kurt yawned as if confirming his recent lack of sleep. “It’s just, well… there’s been a lot of cases put on my plate lately. Thero’s been running rampant, stealing anything she can get her hands on. It’s weird that she’s working alone now, but it’s not making her any easier to catch let me tell you! If anything, she’s more dangerous now than before… taking strange risks…” His eyes glazed over for a moment, lost in the abyss of his own mind. Until, inexplicably, he jolted back to reality. “And then there’s this!” He picked up the photo of the dead man, my eyes watching his motions carefully. “Third one in two weeks! Blue is getting more reckless too, almost like she’s trying to prove something…” A distant look clouded his expression suddenly. “Then, of course, I have all of this paperwork for Red.” His voice was monotone, as though he couldn’t decide whether he was content or not with that outcome. I wasn’t interested in hearing about Red, though, and quickly redirected the conversation to more pressing matters.

“You any closer to catching the other two?” Kurt shrugged noncommittally, but before he could say anything, I saw out of the corner of my eye a familiar face appearing from the break room. “Uh, sorry, gotta go.” I gave an apologetic wave accompanied with a cute, contrite smile before hurrying to catch up to Pak.

I rushed up to the detective’s side as he approached a group of three; the same people whom I had seen chatting in the lounge earlier. They looked as though they were arguing now, though. One of them, a larger man of native American heritage, turned to Pak and I with a wide grin on his face.

“Maybe _these_ two will appreciate true comedy when they hear it!” Thero’s usual handler, Zisteau, put his head in his hands and sighed,

“No one wants to hear your dumb jokes, Pause!” Beside him, Beef snickered. I raised my eyebrows quizzically, thoroughly intrigued.

“Shush, you!” Pause made some flourishing movement with his hands, as though that would stop Zisteau from interrupting. He then side-stepped in a way that blocked both Z and Beef from view, the latter now giggling even more uncontrollably. “Okay, so, whaddya call a clairvoyant midget who escaped from prison?” I looked to Pak who, in turn, looked to me for the answer. In the distant past, I vaguely remembered having heard this one before. But my mind was full enough with actual, significant information that I didn’t have the capacity to remember the punchlines of silly jokes. It didn’t seem that Pak knew, either. “You don’t know?” The prospect of delivering the punchline had Pause even more excited. I shook my head and waited for what was bound to be a poorly thought-out pun. But just as Pause was inhaling a large, dramatic breath, Beef piped up in a small voice,

“A small medium at large!” There was a split second of confusion reflected in Pause’s eyes, then anger.

“BEEF! You ruined it!” Pak and I both snickered, not at the vapid joke, but at Beef’s hijacking of it.

While Beef and Pause bickered in the background, my attention was diverted to Zisteau. His gaze was fixed on something in the distance, and I didn’t have to turn around to know who he was looking at.

“I heard Thero’s been on a rampage of sorts, you and Kurt having any luck there?” He snapped out of his trance and blinked a few times before responding.

“Oh… no, not really. I’m starting to regret asking for his help; if I would have known he was going to work himself to death over it, I would have kept quiet about it.” Zisteau took a sip from his coffee, again looking over in Kurt’s direction with a thoughtful, worried expression on his face. I wondered how long it would take him and his colleague to figure out the reason for Thero’s change in behavior. Perhaps a kinder soul would have told him, but I liked my job far too much to be giving that particular information away. My thoughts were momentarily distracted by Pause, who had accidentally spilled his own drink on himself and was currently blaming Beef for the mistake. Pak seemed thoroughly amused by this, but I was too focused on my work to pay it much mind.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself. He’s busy with other cases too, not just Thero’s.” To this, Zisteau just nodded vacantly, still staring off into the distance. I realized, then, that I wasn’t going to get much out of him at the moment.

Upon this realization, I began to consider Pause as my next victim. He had managed to procure a wad of napkins, which he was using to dab the dark stain on his shirt. “How ‘bout you, Pause? Don’t you have work to be doing?” Pause looked up from his shirt, his expression quite comical.

“Nah, nothin’ much to do lately. Actually, things have been strangely quiet, as of late. Just been taking a few odds-and-ends type of cases, nothing serious.” I had been expecting as much. He shrugged and continued in his struggle to dry off his cloths while Beef piped in,

“Well I, for one, have been getting a ton of case work recently. Feel free to take some of my work if you’re bored, Pause!” Beef nudged him teasingly, and Pause feigned a look of annoyance.

“I’ll pass, thanks. Think of it as punishment for spilling coffee on me!” This comment reinvigorated their argument, which I was already becoming bored of. Their antics were a good comic relief, but I tired of them quickly.

I glanced at the clock, which showed that night was rapidly approaching. Having retrieved all of the information that I was going to get for the day, I pulled Pak away from the obnoxious presence of Pause and Beef.

“I think I’m going to go home… I’m feeling pretty tired.” A solemn look came over my partner, and he nodded deliberately.

“I think we both need some rest after today.” He looked me straight in the eye, and for a fleeting moment I could have sworn he could see right through me. See, with his piercing stare, past my mask of innocence, past my thick skin, and past my carefully constructed facade. Real fear unlike any I had felt in ages seized my heart and forced me to break eye contact. Against my better judgement I looked down at my feet, hoping that what I feared was not the truth. If it was, Pak made no move to call me out on it. Instead, he placed a feather-light hand on my shoulder and said, “Sleep well,” before walking back to join his coworkers.

I stood, paralyzed, for a fraction of a second before turning on heel and walking briskly back out the glass doors. As soon as I felt I was far enough away from the precinct, I broke into a jog. After all, Kawa was expecting my report tonight, and I didn’t want to be late.


	5. Dragon

This was it. The big day. I fidgeted with my necklace, suddenly self-conscious and worried. If everything didn’t go right today… well, there was no redoing it. I looked over to my left, stealing a glance at the driver of the vehicle I was currently in. Her attention was focused on the road, occasionally glancing at the map sprawled out on her lap. Every time she looked down, her long, red hair would obstruct her vision and every time, she would furiously brush it away. I had tried to convince her to allow me to read the map for her, but she didn’t trust me not to memorize the exact location of the place we were going. Smart of her, as that was exactly what I would have done.

Although she trusted me enough to take me to this party, I could sense from these small actions that she was suspicious of me. Not only would she not allow me to look at the map, but she had insisted on blindfolding me for most of the drive there. Only once we had reached a dense forest did she tell me I could uncover my eyes. Though these things annoyed me to no end, I was forced to comply. Getting into the party in the first place was a feat unto itself, learning the exact location of it would have been asking too much of myself. 

Much to my dismay, the redheaded woman looked over in my direction just as I was staring at her. Thankfully, she didn’t think much of it and only gave me a reassuring smile.  
“Don’t worry Lindsay… all of this secret stuff is just an extra precaution. It’ll be fun, I promise.” I grinned and said in return,

“Oh I don’t doubt that.” Having returned to my usual position with my head leaned against the passenger seat window, I continued, “Hey Cleo… how many people will be there?” I closed my eyes, trying to relax myself in preparation for this very important job.

“Um, well not very many. Technically we’re not supposed to bring guests but they won’t say no to me.” She flashed me a smile, which I caught out of the corner of my vision. Good, it was important that there wouldn’t be many pairs of eyes on watch.

The car fell silent again, and I took advantage of this moment to go over the plan in my mind again for the hundredth time. The overlying goals here were to firstly figure out who these people were, then to scope out their base to find any weak spots. That was all, there was no need to go overboard here. It would prove rather difficult to get even this simple information, however, since one of the terms of Cleo bringing me to this party was that I not ask any questions of her or anyone else at the place. Other terms included not allowing me to bring my cellphone and me agreeing to being blindfolded for the majority of the trip there, which also hindered my ability to gain information on the place. It was a stroke of luck that she was even willing to bring me in the first place; had she not been so blindly trusting of me, I wouldn’t have ever gotten this opportunity. What were the odds that one of my old, school friends got caught up in a gang that happened to be the rival to mine? It was too good to be true… I was afraid of even thinking about it for fear of jinxing my luck. If Cleo hadn’t been so careless and allowed White to see her face, we would still be clueless as to who was attacking the Salad. I mean, we were still clueless, but we were at least making progress.

A part of me felt bad, though. Even though we went our separate ways and hadn’t kept in touch, Cleo and I had been best friends in high school. She was my last link to my past life, and I was betraying her. _It’s her own fault for getting involved in… whatever she’s involved in._ I tried to reassure myself, but did a poor job of it. 

“Hey Lindsay?” I turned toward Cleo’s voice, opening my eyes again.

“Hmm?” My former friend looked as though she was teetering on the edge of speech, like she wanted to say something but didn’t want me to judge her for saying it.

“I just… I’m glad you called me again. After school… everything changed. I’ll tell you everything later, but for now I’m just happy we can hang out like old times.” Her cheeks reddened, as though she were made embarrassed by opening up to me. Her words and little blush all stabbed me in the heart like a rusty steak knife. What would she say when she found out I was acting as a double-agent for the Salad this whole time? All I knew was I didn’t want to be around to find out. With a tremendous effort, I forced myself to smile.

“Yeah, I’m glad too.”

There were only a few minutes left of the car ride to endure before we arrived at our destination. At first glance, it appeared to be a huge mansion built in the middle of the forest. It was difficult to tell amidst all of the blinding, colorful lights contrasted on the dark night sky, but after my eyes adjusted to the party’s lighting I could tell that this was no house. It was a hotel. Not just any hotel, either, but a _fancy_ one. Much fancier than I had ever stepped foot in. 

“Damn Cleo, a hotel?! I thought you said this was a small party?” Cleo laughed at my gaping mouth as she pulled up into a parking space. 

“The, ah, hosts like to put on a show. Don’t worry, it’s not as big as it seems.” Unable to control myself, I muttered,

“That’s what he said.” Cleo scoffed at my lame joke.

“Come on wise-ass, let’s go.” I barely had time to exit the car and take note of the booming music in the background before a cross-looking man approached Cleo and I.

“Cleo, you’re not supposed to bring guests!” I was momentarily startled by the man’s thick southern drawl, quite unexpected out of such a scrawny, well-dressed man. He looked at me, his eyes narrowed. What a warm welcome; people were already suspicious of me and I hadn’t even spoken yet.

“Lighten up, Joe!” When Joe didn’t look like he was going to “lighten up” anytime soon, Cleo leaned closer to him and whispered something in his ear. I strained my ears to hear what she was saying, but couldn’t make anything out. Whatever it was, it made the man relax his folded arms and softened the scowl on his face, though it didn’t cast aside his suspicious glare.

“Alright, but don’t blame me when you get in trouble. They don’t take kindly to strangers.” Cleo grinned, satisfied that she had managed to convince Joe of my good intentions.

“What they don’t know won’t hurt them!” She said in a chipper voice before turning to me. “Oh I almost forgot! Lindsay, this is Joe Hills. He’s a… friend of mine. Joe, this is Lindsay.” Joe held out a grudging hand toward me, and I took it with a nod.

“Pleased to meet ya, Lindsay.” The man spoke out of force of habit, with his politeness sounding almost mandatory.

“Same to you.” I muttered with a small smile. I made a mental note not to ask this one any questions; he was far too sharp, I needed someone more dim-witted.

After going through the necessary pleasantries, Cleo grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward the party. As soon as we got out of earshot, she said, exasperated,

“Sorry about him, Joe can be such a _bore_ sometimes!” I nodded and smiled. I had a feeling I was going to be doing a lot of that tonight.

“Who is ‘they?’” I tried to sound as innocent as possible as I asked the question, but didn’t expect a straight answer. It was worth a shot, though.

“Oh, nothing you need to worry about.” Cleo waved her hand as if to dismiss my question, and I didn’t press the issue. My former friend wasn’t someone I wanted to interrogate, either. If I had thought I would get anything out of her, I wouldn’t have bothered coming to this party where I was so unwelcome.

As we approached the throng of people, I stopped momentarily to drink it all in. The majority of the people were gathered around the outdoor pool, though from the lights blasting out the hotel’s windows I could assume that there were at least some people inside, too. The sheer number of people packed around the pool like sardines astounded me… what was it that Joe said? No one was supposed to bring guests? My heart sank at the realization. If all of these people were members of the rival group… well, we may have been in over our heads. There had to be twice as many people in front of me as were members of the Salad, and that was just outside of the hotel!

“Something wrong, Lindsay?” Cleo noticed my hesitance and dropped my hand, letting it fall to my side. I could hardly hear her over the music that was drilling into my eardrums. I shook my head slightly to clear it and shouted over the loud noise,

“No... there’s just a lot of people. I thought you said this was a small party?” She laughed and responded,

“Well, it’s small compared to the parties I usually go to.” Cleo flashed me a mischievous grin, making me wonder what kind of parties she had gotten herself into after high school. “C’mon, let’s get some drinks.” The red haired girl grabbed my hand again as if to lead me to the bar, but I dug in my heels.

“No, I… I think I’ll wait. You go on ahead though!” It was imperative for my mission that I maintain a clear mind, and alcohol wasn’t going to help with that. Plus this gave me an opportunity to ditch Cleo, which I took readily. My companion seemed reluctant to leave me, but after a moment’s pause she shrugged and continued on her way. I waited until I lost her flaming red hair in the sea of people before turning around and heading for the hotel doors. 

As I meandered back around to the front of the building, I took note of as many details as I could without looking suspicious. The fire escape that wound its way up to nearly the top of the hotel was of particular interest to me, as well as the heavy, industrial doors that guarded the front entrance. They were open now for party-goers, but as I passed by them I observed their thickness, almost like they were blast-resistant. Well, it wasn’t like I was planning on barging through the front doors, anyway. Once inside, I was left frozen in awe of the extravagant lobby. No, it was beyond extravagant… who in their right minds would decorate a hotel with huge, glistening emeralds? Whoever these people were, they certainly liked to flaunt their wealth. And wealthy, they definitely were.

“You like ‘em?” I recoiled at the sudden appearance of the voice behind me, but when I turned around I saw that it was merely a drunken man staring wistfully up at the emeralds I had been admiring. I cleared my throat, embarrassed at my flinching. He hadn’t seemed to notice, however. “They’re all real, o’ course. Gen-u-ine emeralds, all the way from South Africa.” His tone of voice was fond, as though the emeralds were his children. Now that I had a moment to examine him, the man looked strangely familiar, as if he was a celebrity whose name I had forgotten.

“Yeah, they’re very nice. What’s your name?” I saw no need to be discrete with this one, with the way he was struggling to even stand straight. No doubt he would forget all of this by morning… the perfect person to answer my questions. The man giggle-snorted when I asked him for a name, though I didn’t see what was funny. He leaned in close to me, his breath reeking of alcohol. If he hadn’t been so drunk, he might have been attractive, but I had always found the stench of liquor to be a put-off.

“‘Round here, people call me Pungence.” I had to fight back a laugh at the nickname. 

“It suits you.” The insult slipped past my lips before I had time to stop it, but luckily Pungence didn’t seem to notice the dig on his pungent scent. “How about a real name, though? Do you have one of those?” Pungence reeled back, a look of horror on his face.

“No! I mean, I do, but I’m not supposed t’ tell anyone.” I nodded hastily, hoping I hadn’t upset him.

“I understand.” Before I could ask another question, the foul-smelling man laid one on me himself.

“How ‘bout you, little lady? Got a nickname for yerself?” It was a very near miss; I had almost said my Salad name by reflex. But thankfully I caught myself, and Pungence was too inhibited to notice my slip-up.

“Dr-, I mean, Lindsay. Just Lindsay, I don’t have a nickname.” Pungence looked astounded by this development.

“No nickname?! That’s a little dangerous… what do people call you when you’re on a mission, then?” I was befuddled for a minute before I realized; he thought I was part of _his_ gang! Perhaps I should have come up with a fake name, but it was too late now. 

“Oh, uh, well… I haven’t been on a mission yet.” It was a lame excuse, and even the drunken man was starting to look suspicious of me. An idea struck me then, and I quickly changed the topic. “Hey, can I borrow your phone for a minute?” But Pungence was beginning to doubt my sincerity, and he was noticeably hesitant to give me his phone. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and shied away, looking as though he was on the verge of saying something.

“What for?” He slowly took his phone out of his pants pocket and held it protectively in his fist.

“I just need to text a friend… I forgot my phone at home and need to tell her something.” I could see the wheels turning in his head, but, when he couldn’t find anything suspicious about my request, he cautiously handed over his phone. “Thanks, it’ll just be a minute.” 

It was a stroke of pure luck that Pungence happened to have a smartphone; I don’t know what I would have done if he hadn’t. But, as it were, I quickly pulled up his GPS to see our current location. I understood now why Cleo didn’t want me to take my phone; it wasn’t because she was afraid of me calling anyone, it was because she feared that I would figure out where the gang’s base was. In the short time I had with the phone, I was barely able to commit the hotel’s address to memory.

“What’s takin’ so long?” Pungence leaned forward to see what I was doing. I realized my time was up and swiftly shut off the phone.

“Nothing, I’m done. Thanks again!” I handed him the phone and gave him a cheery wave before walking away, hoping beyond hope that he didn’t remember any of this in the morning. 

As I walked aimlessly, I realized just how loose security seemed to be here. Sure, the doors were blast-resistant, but they weren’t closed and there were no guards around. I supposed this was meant to be a members-only party, so they had nothing to worry about. A snicker escaped my lips at the thought. They should really have been more careful about who they put on the guest list.

After wandering away from the party for a couple minutes, I found myself in a narrow corridor near the back of the hotel. Looking up, I noticed that there were security cameras overlooking even this remote hallway. No matter, cameras were easily taken care of. Well, I didn’t know that it was easy persay, but the Salad’s local hackers have never let us down. They were the best of the best, and I had no doubt that they could shut this place down in less than an hour. That thought had me wondering, though… what was Kawa’s plan for these people? She hadn’t given me the whole picture when sending me out on this assignment, though I assumed from all of this spywork that she was planning to do something about these leeches. But what… blow them up? With what? It wasn’t like we had high-grade military bombs readily available, which was what it would take to bring this thing down. Gas it, maybe? Seemed a little harsh. I was uneasy about the idea of killing them all, especially knowing that Cleo would die with them…

“What are you doing here?” I jumped a mile high at the sound of a booming voice behind me. For the second time at this godforsaken party, someone had managed to startle me. But this time was different; I was alone in the deserted hallway of a criminal organization. The realization of how much danger I was in hit me suddenly as though it were a blow to the chest. “I said, what’re ya doin’ here?” The commanding voice called out again, and I took a deep breath before putting on my most bemused expression and turning around. I was about to make up some excuse when I realized that I knew who the voice belonged to. Tall, dark hair, brown eyes, and wearing the usual white t-shirt with ripped up jeans. I knew who this was and, by extension, I knew the name of the group that was threatening the Salad. BdoubleO, a legend among criminals, who co-founded the well-known empire that called themselves the B-Team.

My newfound awareness of my surroundings elated me and filled me with confidence, enough to be able to stand tall and even flash my enemy a cheeky smile.

“Oh, sorry! I was just looking for the bathroom… I think I’m lost though, could you point me in the right direction?” Even as the words were leaving my lips, I knew it had been the wrong thing to say. Everyone at this party was supposed to be a member… of course everyone would know where the bathrooms were! This was not lost on my inquisitor, either.

“What d’ya mean you’re lost? Who are you, anyway?” He took a step closer to me, and I had to fight the strong urge to back away.

“Didn’t Generik tell you? I’m Lindsay, Cleo’s friend. Generik let me join up just yesterday, so I don’t know my way around yet…” This was a deep, dark hole I was digging for myself. The lies were beginning to stack up to the point where even the most casual of investigations would cause it to tumble down. All BdoubleO would have to do was ask his friend and partner-in-crime, Generik, about whether or not he recognized me. Of course he wouldn’t, and I would be ruined. But he didn’t question it. By some miracle, his expression turned into a scowl and he folded his arms crossly.

“I keep tellin’ him he’s got to stop doing that! Old fool...” He looked at me again, as though he had forgotten for a moment that I was there. “You just… get back to the lobby. I don’t have time to be givin’ a damn tour.” And with that, he pushed past me in the narrow hallway and stalked off to terrorize someone else.

I could scarcely breathe, but my heart raced on regardless. So astonished was I at my ability to weasel my way out of a confrontation that I momentarily forgot that I needed to move. I had to get out of there before BdoubleO had time to talk to Generik or Cleo, since both of them would have different stories than the one I told him. I would have to walk home which would, undoubtedly, look suspicious. But it didn’t matter; there was no way I was ever coming back here again, anyway. At least not as an invited guest, that is.

I started off at a brisk walk, through the narrow hallway and past the emerald-studded lobby. My luck held as I walked; no one stopped me to chat, not even when I made my way outside. Or perhaps someone had called out my name, but I was too deep in thought to notice it. My mind raced, evaluating the grim situation. BdoubleO and GenerikB were the most feared criminals in the country, and their gang was known to be exceptionally ruthless. Even other criminals were afraid of the B-Team, so what could the Salad possibly do to end their harassment? And, more importantly, why were they harassing us in the first place? They were the only group that could claim to outnumber the Salad, so of all the places to relocate, why move to a city where they knew they would have such fierce competition? It just didn’t make sense.

Nobody stopped me as I marched farther and farther away from the party. When I looked back over my shoulder, I could only just see the faint glow of colorful lights shining through the tree leaves. The sounds of music and talking were quickly snuffed out by densely packed trees. It was a good thing that I had looked at that phone earlier, because if I hadn’t I would have been hopelessly lost. Even so, it would be a long walk back until I was close enough to civilization to get a cab. I sighed as I looked down the winding road, illuminated only by moonlight. My only consolation was that I had successfully completed my mission and then some, and would surely be welcomed back to the Salad base with open arms.


	6. Squid

Everything was going perfectly… so far, at least. In fact, I was shocked with just how well everything was going. I mean, we were good at our jobs, but today we seemed abnormally stealthy. I silently applauded our work thus far, and suppressed a chuckle at my own arrogance. I recalled, again, how we had gotten to the roof of this fancy hotel. It was a difficult assignment, given that the place was alight with activity even at this time of night. Ascending a building via various fire escapes while people were milling about right outside of it was no easy task, but at least there wasn’t a party going on like the last time a Salad member infiltrated the building. I looked over at my companion and grinned at the look of concentration on her face. I admired the way Dragon had been able to invade the B-Team headquarters right under their noses... but I wasn’t about to tell her that!

The silence was beginning to get on my nerves, so I filled it with the only thing I could; my own speech. “Hey Dragon… we make a pretty good team, don’t we? We should work together more often!” My temporary partner snapped out of her trance to look at me impassively.  
“How do you figure? All we’ve done so far is climb a building… don’t talk to me about how good we are until we finish the job.” I pouted and crossed my arms. Someone was grumpy today!

Having been reasonably confident that no one saw us climbing up, I decided it would be safe to steal a glance over the edge of the roof. Even though the height of the building had my stomach churning with apprehension, I still managed to muster up the courage to stick my head over the dizzying drop. “Dang…” I muttered quietly as I peered over the edge, too afraid of falling to pay much attention to what was happening on the ground yet too stubborn to back away. Eventually, Dragon grabbed the back of my hoodie and pulled me back from the edge.

“Stop it, someone might see you.” I sighed and brushed Dragon’s hands away from me. Was I not allowed to have any fun on this assignment?

“Are you almost done yet?” I leaned over my partner’s shoulder, who had only just gotten back to work on picking the lock that kept the trapdoor on the roof closed. Dragon huffed in annoyance.

“I’ll be done sooner if you stop-” Just then, the lock she had been working on clicked open. Dragon looked almost surprised at her own lockpicking skills, which made me giggle. With a concerted effort, my partner and I pushed the heavy door down into the building. The trapdoor swung downward, a staircase folding out under it much like a staircase leading down from an attic.The staircase lead down to a dark hallway that smelled of mold. I wrinkled my nose and squinted my eyes, trying to see down the hall despite the absence of light.

“Well this is… just lovely. I thought you said the walls were lined with emeralds?” I looked up at Dragon, disappointed by the seemingly normal hotel hallway. Meanwhile, my partner took a small flashlight out of her pocket and shined it down the hole in the ceiling.

“Keep your voice down!” She hissed at me before descending down the stairs soundlessly. I watched eagerly as she examined her surroundings, straightened her hat, and motioned for me to come down. Anxious to get going, I hopped down the stairs far less gracefully than Dragon. The staircase was very flimsy and wobbly; I feared that it might not hold even my own comparatively light weight. My partner gave me a cross look upon hearing the moaning of the rotten old staircase, but didn’t bother telling me off again.

It was difficult to make out my surroundings with Dragon controlling the only light source, but from what I could see this looked like any old hotel building. Taller than most and with extravagant decorations on the outside, but completely plain and boring on the inside. “No cameras up here, just as I suspected. There weren’t nearly enough people at that party to fill up this whole hotel. They must be expecting to expand.” Dragon’s mumble was barely audible even to me, and I was standing only inches away from her.

“Could use some emeralds to lighten the place up. Just sayin’.” I thought I saw the corners of Dragon’s mouth twitch a little as though she was about to smile, but before I knew it, the moment was gone. My partner began to walk down the hallway at a brisk pace, with me right on her heels. The dim glow of the flashlight bobbed up and down as we walked, casting tall, imposing shadows on the floor. A long time ago, a scene like this might have scared me. A very, very long time ago.

“Remember, we’re looking for floor plans. Probably would be in an office. And we’re going to have to turn the light off as soon as we get to the stairwell… I don’t want to risk being seen by anyone.” I looked at her quizzically before saying,

“Yeah, but I’m sure they have infrared cameras here. We do at our base. So turning off the light won’t do much, will it?” Dragon waved a hand, as though dismissing my logic.

“Nah, Delta and Red have already taken care of the cameras. Didn’t anyone tell you?” I frowned and crossed my arms. Why did no one ever tell me anything? I was starting to feel like I was only around as a side-kick. It was like I was some sort of apprentice, or something. Maybe I wasn’t as experienced as Dragon, but I wasn’t about to take orders from her.

“No! Why didn’t you tell me?!” I wasn’t the type to get upset about much, but I couldn’t stand being told what to do. If Dragon started bossing me around, we would have a problem.

“I thought someone else would have told you.” She lowered her flashlight as we approached a door that lead to the stairwell. Dragon put one hand on the knob, but seemed to change her mind and looked to me before turning the handle. “Don’t be dramatic, Squid. It’s not a big deal.” My cheeks flushed red with anger and embarrassment. Not that Dragon would be able to notice in the dark.

“I’m not being dramatic.” I murmured and looked away, my temper being replaced by mere annoyance. Maybe I was overreacting. Still, someone should have told me about the cameras.

“Well if you’re going to argue with me, at least wait until we get out of here.” And with that, Dragon turned the knob to open the door. I caught a brief glimpse of the spiralling staircase before my partner shut off the flashlight, plunging us into total darkness. I quickly reached out and grabbed Dragon’s hand, not wanting to lose her in the dark. She tugged on my hand, guiding me forward. We shuffled a few steps toward the stairs, careful not to accidentally trip and fall. My heart lurched as I felt my foot sink down in front of me; we’d reached the first step. I squeezed Dragon’s hand in an effort to silently warn her about the upcoming drop. She must not have understood the warning, because a moment later I heard her gasp and felt her hand clutch mine tightly. _This is stupid._ I thought as we felt our way down the stairs, each clinging on to each other and the railings. _If we can barely make it downstairs in the dark, how are we going to find an office?_ I counted the number of turns we made as we descended, trying to keep track of what floor we were on. We’d agreed beforehand that any offices would probably be on the first floor, so we still had a long descent ahead of us.

There were a couple of close calls as we made our way downwards. Twice, a person with a flashlight emerged from a few floors below us and started to head up. Both times, after nearly having a heart attack, Dragon and I would duck through the nearest door and hope that the other person wasn’t heading to the floor were hiding in. Luckily, they never were.

After a long, arduous journey down the staircase in the dark, we finally reached the first floor. At this point, my heart was pounding with anxiety. I could relate it to that feeling I got as a kid when I was waiting in line for a haunted house or a scary amusement ride; the anticipation was always a lot worse than the outcome. I tried to tell remind myself of that as I stood just outside of the first floor door, but it didn’t help. At least there was a little bit of light streaming through the crack under this door, which allowed me to see Dragon again for the first time in what felt like hours. She had her ear pressed to the door, presumably listening for footsteps. Even though it wasn’t needed anymore, we were still clutching each other’s hands as though our lives depended on it. With a serious expression on her face, Dragon nodded curtly in my direction and moved to open the door.

The simple, wooden door swung inwards excruciatingly slowly. At least it hadn’t creaked as it opened, which would have further traumatized my already frayed nerves. Outside was a narrow hallway; better kept than the one upstairs and far less smelly. A dim light permeated the air and flooded into the stairwell. By no means was it a bright light, but after walking in the pitch dark for so long even the softest glow felt like a spotlight. There was no one in sight, so Dragon started down the hallway at a brisk walk. I allowed myself to be led forward by the hand, keeping a careful eye on all of the surrounding doors to make sure none of the handles were turning.

We saw no one as we walked. It seemed almost too lucky, which made me even more nervous. Where were all of the guards? This was the headquarters of a sophisticated criminal organization… so why wouldn’t there be loads of guards around the place? I supposed it might seem pointless to them to have someone guarding this narrow, winding hallway when it was in the center of the building, but still. I would have almost felt better if there were guards swarming the hotel, because at least then it would have felt natural. Being able to just walk around on the first floor felt so wrong. I looked up anxiously at one of the many security cameras adorning the hallway, my tense shoulders relaxing slightly at the sight of them. The fact that they were disabled was a comfort, at least.

Dragon stopped abruptly as we reached a set of grand, ornamental wooden doors. She pressed herself flat against the wall, and I followed suit. Then, she whispered; “These are the doors to the main lobby. Offices will probably be behind the reception desk.” I nodded, a serious expression taking over my face. I slipped past Dragon and pressed the palms of my hands against the door, hesitating to listen for any sign of footsteps. I heard only the muffled sound of someone coughing, a sound that made my stomach turn. There were definitely people out there, but hopefully they weren’t looking in my direction. I reached for the hidden knife at my hip, testing its weight in my hand and breathing deeply to calm myself. Once I stole my nerves and gave a quick glance in Dragon’s direction, I slowly pressed my weight against the heavy wooden door and peeked out into the lobby.

My eyes quickly scanned the scene in front of them, taking in every little detail that could have possibly helped or hurt me. Our luck must have held, because not one of the guards was looking in my direction. From my sweep of the lobby, I counted a total of three guards both inside and outside of the building. Two of them were positioned outside on either side of the main doors, their backs facing me. I figured that they wouldn’t be much of a problem, since those doors looked quite sturdy and sound-proof. The third guard, on the other hand, would have to be taken out. He was sitting behind the counter of the reception desk, his chair angled slightly away from me. It didn’t look as though he was taking his job very seriously, since he had his feet resting on top of the desk and he was holding in his hands what looked like a magazine of some sort. If he were to look up from his reading, he would see me staring at him holding a knife. Carefully, I slipped past the door and let it close behind me soundlessly. I gulped, my heart thudding rapidly in my chest; there was no going back now.

One would think that, after assassinating people so many times before, it would get easier. But even now I was still just as nervous as the first time, especially since there was a very real possibility that the soon-to-be victim would look up at any moment and catch me. He seemed entirely absorbed in his magazine, though, and I made sure he didn’t hear my footfalls as I snuck up on him expertly. After what seemed like an eternity, I found myself looming over the man with my knife raised. Only now that I was right behind him did I see what magazine he was drinking in so obsessively, and it nearly made me laugh out loud. Trying to ignore the man’s lewd taste in reading material, I brought the knife to his throat and ran it through his neck in one swift motion. Then, with a sideways glance at the guards still standing unaware outside, I hurried back to open the door and motioned to Dragon that the lobby was cleared.

My partner grimaced when she saw my handiwork, wrinkling her nose at the sight of blood still pouring freely out of the man’s jugular. She stopped to stare at him for a moment, an unreadable expression on her face.

“Do they always do that?” I was caught off guard by her question and wondered why we weren’t hurrying. Did we really have to stop to chat now? 

“Do what?” I asked, forcing myself to look at the body again. I saw nothing out of the ordinary, and quickly averted my gaze back to Dragon’s face.

“Twitch like that.” Dragon looked disgusted, and understandably so. I had forgotten that she didn’t have a taste for killing, and to be honest it even disturbed me. I looked at the body again, just long enough to see that his right leg was kicking out furiously. It knocked against the bottom of the desk a few times before quieting down. I grabbed Dragon’s hand and answered curtly,

“Yes.” Before anyone could come along and find us staring at a dead body, I dragged Dragon away from it and toward a set of doors behind the desk. She didn’t resist my touch, but I couldn’t help but to notice that she was shaking just a little. I was far out of my league; I had no idea how to comfort someone after they got scared by a dead man. One that I had killed, even. So instead I just tried to ignore it and focus on the task at hand.

There were two, plain looking doors in front of us, each with a shiny name tag adorning it. One had printed in sharp, black lettering, “BDoubleO.” The other, a little dirtier, said “GenerikB.” On a whim, I tried the handle of Generik’s door. Of course, it was locked. Without saying a word, Dragon bent down to get to work on the lock. I fidgeted where I stood, glancing over my shoulder compulsively. 

“How long will it take?” Despite trying not to sound whiny, even I noticed the childish edge to my voice. Dragon huffed, just as she had when we were on the roof.

“It’s a lot harder than it looks, ya know.” I giggled quietly, not entirely sure why I was laughing. Dragon didn’t join in.

A minute later, I heard the telltale click of the lock giving in and watched as my partner pushed open the door. I hadn’t even thought about it, but it was possible that GenerikB had stayed late at the office and was still in his room. Again, though, our luck pulled though. Our good fortune was really beginning to worry me, but my irrational fear of luck was so silly that I didn’t bother voicing my concerns.

“You go through the file cabinets, I’ll get the desk. Better hurry, we’ve been here too long already.” Dragon barked instructions at me as I closed the door behind us. I felt like making a sarcastic comment about how much time she wasted staring at the body, but thought better of it. Instead, I walked briskly over to a tall filing cabinet that was unnecessarily ornate. The B-Team certainly liked to decorate, and this office was no exception. I tugged at the fancy bronze handle and shouldn’t have been surprised when I was met with resistance. Of course it was locked, why wouldn’t it be? I turned around to break the news to Dragon, but it seemed that she was one step ahead of me. I barely had time to catch the key that was being thrown at me, one that she had presumably found sitting on the desk.

“Thanks.” I muttered before testing out the small silver key, finding that it fit perfectly. To my utter anguish, I found that the first drawer that I opened was in chaos. Papers were thrown into it haphazardly. Many important documents were folded at odd angles, tossed carelessly into the heap of crumpled files. “Ugh, hopefully BdoubleO is more organized, otherwise this could take all night.” Dragon didn’t respond to my complaints, and I didn’t expect her to. She did, however, emerge from her own junk pile triumphantly.

“Here we go! Floor plans!” She turned to me, grinning and holding a stack of crumpled blueprints. Not bothering to be careful with the already creased papers, she laid them out flat on the desk. Before diving into my own heap of documents, I shuffled over to look at them.

“How did you find that so fast?” I asked in awe. Dragon merely shrugged and, after glancing them over to make sure they were complete, folded the papers back up more carefully than their owner had before.

“I’m gonna go get started on BdoubleO’s room, you take these.” She shoved the floor plans into my chest and walked off, a new spring in her step. I grumbled under my breath, miffed that she had managed to get me stuck carrying her things for her. I stuffed the silver key in my pocket and tucked the blueprints under my arm before going back to searching through the filing cabinet. There was nothing useful that I could find in the bottom drawer, but a leather-bound book caught my eye in the second drawer that I searched. I pulled it out and saw the year “2013” written on it in gold lettering. Curious, I flipped it open and thumbed through the pages. Unsurprisingly, it was a planner. Each day was filled to the brim with tiny, almost illegible writing, up until about a month in the future when the number of words per day became fewer and fewer. By the time I got to December, the days were completely blank… save for one. On the 25th, Generik had written in large letters, “Christmas - day off.” I closed the book and hesitated, wondering if it would be worth taking with me.

As I contemplated the planner in my hands, I heard the loud BANG! of the door to BdoubleO’s office being thrown open. I jumped, startled by the sound, and rightly so. Why would Dragon have made so much noise?

“Just as I thought.” My blood ran cold when I heard the muffled sound of a man’s voice bleeding through the thin walls that separated my office from Dragon’s. I froze, listening to the sound of many footsteps rushing into the room next to mine. I could just barely hear my partner gasp in surprise. They found us.

“What, didja think that we wouldn’t notice all of th’ cameras freezin’?” The same man said with a laugh. I heard the sound of the door closing again, and found some relief in knowing that they probably didn’t realize I was in the room just next door. My heart still thudded though as I tried to think of a way to get Dragon out of there. “I should’ve known you weren’t one of us at that damn party, but it doesn’t matter anyway. Gotcha now, don’t I?” He sounded almost gleeful as he reveled in his victory. “Now, before I take care of ya, I reckon I should ask… what didja hope to accomplish with this?” There was a long pause in which I could only assume that Dragon was thinking her words over carefully.

“I wanted to know… why did you move here? Of all places, why relocate here?” I had to give her credit, Dragon kept her cool in this seemingly hopeless situation. Her voice was unfaltering, though admittedly it was difficult to tell with how muffled it sounded through the wall. The man roared with laughter.

“Is that all? Really?” His laugh sent chills down my spine as I stood, still frozen, in GenerikB’s office.

“I still don’t understand. And it’s not like I’m going anywhere, so you might as well tell me.” I strained my ears, realizing that Dragon was asking this question for me. The man scoffed, thought for a moment, and must have decided there was no harm in telling her.

“There were better business opportunities here. I have a client who’d pay a pretty penny to have some work done, an’ the B-Team are the best at doin’ the work.” I could almost hear a sly smile in his voice, though perhaps I was reading into it too much.

“But what about the Salad? They were here first…”

“Th’ Salad is just a rag-tag bunch a’ kids! They be stealin’ our work, but ain’t nothin’ gonna keep us from getting paid, not even them!” Wait, stealing their work? What did he mean by that? The B-Team were the ones stealing from us!

“You won’t be able to stop the Salad… trust me, I know them. Maybe they’re not as strong as you, but they’re not as weak as you think either. For now, they’ll hold on tight, and they’ll run. And they’ll keep running until they find somewhere safe where they can make a stand.” I was confused for a brief moment before I realized, She’s talking to me! Realizing what she meant, I made a swift but silent dash for the door. I peeled it open as softly and as quickly as possible, all the while straining to hear what was being said.

“Hells blazes! What does that even mean?” The man sounded annoyed by Dragon’s riddles. “Nevermind. It don’t matter anyway.” I stopped as I exited Generik’s office, hesitating outside of the neighboring door. Dragon had told me to run, but I was still confused… what about her? “I’m bored of this. Just shoot ‘er and be on with it!” I gasped and lunged for the door knob, fully prepared to throw open the door and rescue Dragon. But before I could even turn the handle, a single, deafening gunshot silenced all of my hopes.

I didn’t have time to mourn. I didn’t have time to even think about it. So why was my hand still frozen, clutching the door knob as if it was Dragon’s lifeline? _Maybe she isn’t dead._ I told myself unconvincingly. _Maybe that was just a warning shot. They’ll probably just take her prisoner or something… yeah, they’ll want to question her more._ The more I thought about it, the more convincing it seemed. Of course, they would have had to keep her alive to interrogate her. She had valuable information about the Salad, and they would have wanted that. My eyes wandered over to the body of the guard, slumped forward in his chair with his magazine so thoroughly soaked in blood that it was unrecognizable.

For some reason, that imagery kicked me into gear. I let go of the handle and dashed for the big, ornamental doors that Dragon and I had snuck past only moments ago. I had barely enough sense left in me to slip past them quietly before bolting down the narrow hallway at a sprint. I found myself running blindly into walls, not able to turn sharp enough at the speed I was traveling. But I didn’t care; with panic rising steadily in my chest, I just wanted to get out of this cursed hotel as fast as I possibly could. The stairs, which had seemed to take hours to descend, were a blur to me as I flew up them two steps at a time. By the time I reached the top floor, the muscles in my legs felt as though they were ready to catch fire. With one final push, I propelled myself up the wobbly staircase that had reminded me earlier of an entrance to an attic. It creaked dangerously under my weight, but held strong for me as I finally exited the oppressing, musty smelling hotel in favor of the fresh night air on its rooftop.

As soon as I managed to close the trapdoor, I fell on my knees and began to sob. My whole body shook with the intensity of my sadness and unexpected tears smeared down my face, burning the skin on my cheeks in the cold air. Because in that precise moment, I knew with absolute certainty that Dragon was dead. How could she not be? She was inconsequential to them… as inconsequential as that pervy guard had been to me.

I don’t know how long I knelt there crying, but eventually I realized how cold I was and forced myself to stop. Only then, as the sobs turned into violent hiccups, did I notice what I had been clutching to my chest the entire time. It was the planner and the folded up floor plans, now permanently stained with my tears. Numbly, I dug into my pocket to feel the cold metal of the key. A planner, some blueprints, and the key to GenerikB’s filing cabinet.

It wasn’t worth it.


	7. Shadowrunner

It was a beautiful day for a heist. I cracked the passenger seat window and breathed in the cool morning air, which only excited me more. I could almost taste the blood in the air and smell the fresh scent of crisp, hundred-dollar bills. Eagerness and frustration swept over me like a hurricane. The anticipation of it was killing me! It was, perhaps, a bit pathetic; like a dog getting teased by an owner who just wouldn’t throw the goddamn tennis ball. However, it was good to know that I still found this exhilarating even after mastering the craft. Had I been alone, I probably would not have kept doing this for so long. Hell, I wouldn’t have even started it up in the first place if it weren’t for Thero.

Speaking of my dearest partner, she was the one driving today. I looked over to her, feigning a cross look, but she merely snorted and said,  
“Don’t give me that look, you always drive!” It was true that I never let her drive, but only because she was a maniac on the road. I thought it was a valid reason.

“Yeah, because I don’t usually feel like dying. Watch out for that bike!” I grabbed the wheel from her and swerved to avoid a biker that she had very nearly run over. My heart skipped a beat… she was going to kill us both!

“I got it!” Thero swatted my hand away, the distraction only causing her to swerve again. I backed off, preferring her to keep her attention focused on the road.

“Sure didn’t seem like it!” My tone was lighter now. It was amazing how quickly I got over near-death experiences. Almost like a talent.

“Bikes shouldn’t be on the road, anyway. They just get in the way… why don’t they just stay on the sidewalk where they belong?” I put on a thoughtful expression, touching my chin with my fingertip as if lost in thought.

“Gee, I wonder… maybe because this street doesn’t have a sidewalk? Ever thought of that?” Thero moved to smack me again, but I was prepared this time and dodged her blow.

“Shush, you! Don’t ruin my ranting with your logic!” We poked and swatted at each other playfully for another moment, before I called a truce so as not to cause Thero to swerve out of her lane again.

We sat in silence again after that, both contemplating the task ahead of us. It was a small heist - well, small for us at least - so I didn’t foresee any problems. The unfortunate bank was modest in size, out-of-state, and, in Thero’s opinion, not worth our time. It took a lot of persuading to convince her that we needed to hit this place up in order to throw Zisteau off of our scents. And besides, someone was paying us good money to rob this specific bank. The reason for it was beyond my comprehension, and Kawa wouldn’t tell me who it was that was paying us. It was almost unheard of for someone to pay us to rob a bank. But the pay was good, and that was what mattered to me. What mattered to Thero was that it meant we could go on a road trip together. I personally wasn’t a huge fan of driving for hours with a maniac behind the wheel, but to each their own enjoyment. 

I rested my head on my hand, and propped my elbow on the car door. Already, I was bored with the silence. “We there yet?” I glanced sideways at Thero, who giggled at the childish question.

“Nearly!” A sigh escaped my lips when she gave no sign of continuing. Maybe she really had starting paying attention to the road. But, as much as I didn’t want her to crash, I wanted her to entertain me more.

“Soooo maybe we should talk about the heist?” The whole drive there, we hadn’t discussed the job at hand. We’d done this so many times, there was no real reason to. But it was something to fill the silence, and it never hurt to go over the plan.

“What about it? We do what we always do… I handle the hostages, you get the goods.” It was true that these were the jobs we were best suited for. I considered myself the level-headed one in this relationship, so I was best at moving the operation along by getting the money as quickly as possible. Plus, Thero enjoyed playing with the hostages, and I enjoyed threatening the bank teller. It was a win-win, but it was beginning to grow old.

“Maybe we should switch it up this time.” Thero looked as though the idea was blasphemous.

“Switch it up!? No way! I wanna tease the hostages! It’s my thing!” Knowing exactly how to appeal to Thero, I leaned toward her and rested my head on her shoulder. I looked up at her, batting my eyes with a puppy-dog expression.

“Pwease, Thero? Maybe afterward we can get a hotel room, all by ourselves…” My partner seemed torn, but I knew she would eventually give in. I let my finger trail down her arm, lightly tickling her skin as she considered my proposal.

“Oh, alright!” I quickly sat up straight and giggled at how easily Thero could be manipulated. 

“We can’t walk into a bank like this… pull over and let’s get dressed!”

Once we had gotten dressed up in our usual heist outfits (Me in a black jumper and dark green cloak, Thero in her purple, hooded coat), we went over the plan once more for good measure. I was already beginning to regret letting Thero take over the important job of retrieving the cash. She was reckless and greedy when it came to stealing, and there was no doubt that she would spend far too long in the vault. I emphasized to her that she needed to be fast, but I didn’t think the message would be remembered in the heat of the moment. Not that it mattered as much this time as it usually did, since Zisteau and Kurt were far away in a completely different state. Besides, Kurt was rather busy at the moment with another case file (which also happened to belong to a member of the Salad) and Zisteau… well, we were out-of-state. No reason to worry about him.

“Ready to go?” I looked up upon hearing Thero’s voice. Her eyes were alight with mischief, and she already had her violet mask on. I pulled up my hood and nodded eagerly.

“Always ready.” With that, we stepped out of the car and set our sights on the unassuming bank across the street.

Upon entering a bank, there’s always that brief moment of confusion when nobody’s realized yet that you’re here to rob the place. Some of the people don’t even notice your entrance, while others are just perplexed by your strange attire. People don’t get the hint until you pull out the gun.

“EVERYBODY GET YOUR ASSES ON THE FLOOR NOW!” Thero’s voice echoed off of every wall in the building, booming into the eardrums of everyone in the bank. A couple of the women in the room screamed, as well as one of the toughest looking guys in the place. Just goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Thero shot her gun in the air a few times, and some stupid girl made a run for the door. My partner grabbed the back of the girl’s shirt and threw her on the floor. “Didn’t hear me? I said GET ON THE FLOOR!” The hostage cowered on the ground, thoroughly terrified. I frowned and grabbed Thero’s shoulder, worried that our deal was being ignored.

“I thought I was handling the hostages this time, was I not?” She grinned and held her hands up in a way that suggested surrender.

“You are! I was just warming them up for ya.” Thero’s grin widened as I rolled my eyes, and with that she strolled up to the bank manager, ignoring the dozen innocent civilians now lying on the ground.

“Hey, you.” I prodded the woman who had tried to escape with my foot. “Get away from the door. No don’t stand up!” A sigh of frustration was enough to set the girl into a full-on panic. She whimpered and dropped to the floor again, pressing herself to the concrete as though she was trying to melt into it. People these days just didn’t understand how to be a good hostage. “Crawl.” I ordered in an impassive tone, and had to fight back a giggle at the sight of her shuffling along on the floor. As I amused myself with watching her crawl slowly away, a man nearby looked up at me with an expression of recognition.

“Wait, I know you! You’re the Shadowrunner!” There was a flutter of excitement in my chest at hearing someone else say my codename.

“Indeed!” I had to suppress another giggle when I used my handler’s favorite word. “Good to meet a fan!” This, plus the expression on the man’s face, had me laughing almost maniacally. It was pointless, really, to try and hide it. Thero was right to prefer this job... it was much more fun!

All too soon, Thero herself emerged from the vault along with the bank manager, carrying a full sack that I could only assume was filled with cash and other valuables that our buyer had specifically requested.

“I hate to break up the party, but my associate and I should really be…” Suddenly, Thero stopped mid-sentence and looked up over my shoulder with an expression of disbelief on her face. I heard a crash, a series of gunshots, and, before I could even turn around to look, everything went black.

\---

Blood. The first thing I knew was the smell of blood. I struggled to open my eyes, but somehow they wouldn’t cooperate. Slowly, very slowly, my senses came back to me one by one. After smell (and perhaps taste, but there was nothing there to speak of), came touch. Which was unfortunate, because it meant that I was no longer numb to pain. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, though. Just a sharp throbbing in the back of my head. I felt that I was lying down on the hard floor, much like the hostages that I had mocked only minutes ago. _Karma sure is a bitch._ I thought bitterly, though forming a coherent thought was oddly difficult. Curiously, I also felt something poking me between the shoulderblades, but didn’t think much of it. 

The next sense was sound. I heard, as if through a long tunnel, a male voice. At first, the words were garbled together and meaningless to me. But it didn’t take long for the voice to become clearer. “...throw the bag, and I promise you and your little friend can walk away from this.” The voice was deep, commanding, and unrecognizable. Some primitive part of me feared it, though the logical part of me didn’t understand why.

“Alright, I’m throwing it…” This voice was feminine, and clearly belonged to Thero. What bag was she throwing? The money bag? Wait, what was happening?! 

Suddenly, the fog that had been occupying my mind cleared. I forced my eyes open, but the view at first was underwhelming. Just the dirty bank floor, staring me in the face. I turned my head to the left in an attempt to see what was going on, and was just in time to see Thero throwing our money bag at someone who was beyond my field of view. But apparently moving was the wrong course of action. The thing that was poking me in the back dug into my shoulder sharply, and I winced.

“Don’t move.” It was the gruff, male voice again. His whisper was accompanied by another sharp jab with what I could only assume was a gun, and I nodded. Well, to the best of my ability, as it was difficult to nod when one’s face was pressed against the ground. 

The man’s voice was louder, and seemed to now be directed at Thero, who looked murderous.  
“Good! We’ll just be off then, don’t even think about moving ‘till we’re long gone, ya hear?” Neither Thero nor I made any motion to signify that we heard, but nevertheless I felt the pressure release from my back and heard the sound of two sets of footsteps fading away. I didn’t dare to move until the sound of the bank doors closing had finished echoing through the building.

The look on Thero’s face softened when she looked at me, if only slightly. She ran up to me and held out a hand, which I took gladly.

“You okay?” I waited to answer the question until I successfully stood up. I was a little wobbly and still incredibly disoriented, but essentially fine.

“Yeah I’m good, what happened?” Only now did I have the chance to fully examine my surroundings. The bank was a mess… no, worse than a mess. It was a disaster area. All of my hostages were dead, all lying face-down in their own blood. There was a large hole in the ceiling, almost right underneath where we were standing. My question seemed to cause Thero to shake with rage, and she took her time answering it.

“I - I don’t even know! One minute we were fine, and the next those assholes were jumping out of the ceiling, shooting the place up! One of them… the bastard with the black hair… knocked you out with the butt of his gun. And they made me give them the money… our money…” She took a deep breath, her face growing redder. “THEY STOLE OUR GODDAMN MONEY!” I jumped a mile high at her shout. I hadn’t seen Thero that mad since… well, I don’t think I’d ever seen Thero that mad. She aimed a fierce, frustrated kick at one of the nearby bodies to emphasize her point. Strangely enough, I was perfectly calm. Probably an after-effect from being knocked out cold.

“We have to go.” I grabbed Thero’s arm and tugged her toward the door. She dug her heels in and looked as though she was about to scream at me, but I cut her off. “The police are going to be here any minute, let’s go!” And with that, we ran away from the scene of the crime, not bothering to leave our calling cards.


	8. Delta and Thero

It was a three-part plan. Part one: hack into the security system. This was where we came in. It had not been easy to infiltrate the main servers of the B-Team headquarters without raising suspicion, especially after what had happened with Dragon. I had repeated adamantly that it hadn’t been our fault; after all, I had told the two spies not to be in there long and what did they do? Ignore every warning, of course. I couldn’t have possibly guaranteed their safety when they insisted on staying in there for hours, but still Kawa required that extra precautions be set in place for this mission so that it didn’t happen again. Instead of replacing the footage from the cameras with a still image, it was requested that we put them on a loop. It wasted valuable time, in my opinion, but it had been doable. Now, Red and I sat surrounded by monitors with live footage of what was happening on every floor of the hotel, while the B-Team guards inside were stuck watching a loop. Part one was a success.

Part two was the distraction. The plan was to have Voo and Ginge stand outside of the back door and cause some sort of commotion to distract the attention of the guards in their direction. It shouldn’t have been too hard for them to do; they were both quite good at causing chaos. I thought I’d seen Ginge earlier packing a backpack full of fireworks, so whatever it was they were planning it was likely going to attract every guard in a ten mile radius. It didn’t matter what they did, so long as it distracted them long enough for part three to get underway.

The final part to this scheme was the most crucial part to the whole operation. It involved a team of Saladers infiltrating the building and setting up the materials needed to light this place ablaze. The team included Shadowrunner, Thero, Chirp, and the ever-elusive Amducious, who’d only agreed to come along on this raid at the insistence of Shadowrunner. Officially, he was retired from his days of bombings, but with a little persuasion and the promise of a huge paycheck he was convinced to help us out on this one last mission. It seemed that the B-Team still hadn’t figured out how Dragon and Squid had gotten into their base last time, so the bomb squad planned to enter through the roof as well. Amd would go down to the first floor and plant some bombs while the guards were distracted with Voo and Ginge. But there were only enough explosives to decimate one floor; the remaining were to be burned by the arsonist, Chirp. The fire damage combined with the explosion were, supposedly, enough to take the building down. Amd had insisted that he wanted to work alone, so Shadowrunner and Thero had reluctantly agreed to accompany Chrip and help with the burning of the upper floors. Then, only once everything was in place, the four of them were to exit through the front doors and detonate the explosives.

I ran through the plan once more in my head, mulling it over as though it were an interesting brain teaser. It seemed like a fairly solid plan, especially since we had chosen to execute it on Christmas day. Criminals had families too, and as a result they had left the hotel almost empty just for this one day. We’d had to hold out for a few months, biding our time until Christmas, but it was better to be safe than sorry. It was a good thing we didn’t have to wait any longer, though, because I wasn’t sure how much longer I would have been able to hold out. Everyone in the Salad suffered from the B-Team’s invasion of our turf since people were beginning to hire B-Team members in place of us. The thieves didn’t suffer much; they could always just rob a bank and keep the money for themselves. But we hackers were getting swiftly replaced by the more experienced B-Team techies. I’d barely had enough money this year to buy my sister anything for Christmas… just a shitty gift card that I wouldn’t even get to watch her open.

I was spared from having to think about my sister, alone on Christmas day, when the radio beside me crackled to life.

“Bomb Squad to Blue, do you read?” I sat up straight in my seat at the sound of Thero’s familiar voice, but sunk back down again when I realized the message wasn’t for me.

“Loud and clear, Bomb Squad.” Blue’s response was quieter, as though she were whispering. I had almost forgotten that the sniper was in on this mission, too. She had eyes on the back door of the building, ready to shoot if anything was to go awry.

“Are you in position?” There was a touch of irritation in Thero’s voice that did not go unnoticed by me. I understood the annoyance; Blue had the easiest job but was the last one to be ready. She had claimed earlier that she couldn’t find a good spot to shoot from in this wind, but what did it really matter? She was just there as security, it was unlikely she would even have to shoot at all.

“Yes.” Blue’s reply was curt, and Thero didn’t ask her any more questions.

“How about you, Delta? Still good to go?” I jumped at the sound of my name and reached for the receiver. As I did, I noticed the scowl on my companion’s face out of the corner of my eye.

“Yes, all set.” I looked over at the woman sitting next to me with a questioning expression on my face. In all of my mental preparation for this big event, I had almost forgotten that she was there. I didn’t know how that was possible, since we were packed pretty tight together in the back of this van. Currently, she was leaning back in her chair with her feet resting up on the console, her blond hair pinned to her neck by the headphones that she always wore like an accessory. Her narrowed blue eyes betrayed her mild annoyance.

“Why does she always ask you.” She grumbled, and I chuckled at her jealousy.

“Why don’t you talk to her then?” I held out the radio with a grin. She smiled back mischievously and plucked it from my grasp. 

“Voo, Ginge, are you-” Red held down the talk button and interrupted Thero’s roll call. 

“I’m ready too, thanks for asking.” My partner and I erupted into giggles at Red’s sass. It didn’t take a lot to anger Thero, so by now she must have been fuming. I could sense a rant coming on.

“We’re ready when you are, Thero.” Voo’s cheerful voice diffused the situation and moved us forward with the plan, which was probably for the best. Joking around wasn’t the greatest idea when we were about to do something so dangerous. The thought of just how much rested on this mission sobered my good mood and had my heart fluttering in my chest, but I was comforted in the knowledge that at least Red and I would be in our van the entire time... out of the line of fire. 

“Right, then. Begin the distraction.” With that, the crackle of the radio died out. Silence settled between Red and I as we both scanned the many monitors lining the wall of the van. Annoyingly, we didn’t have a security camera watching the back door. Either it was somehow broken and disconnected from the network, or there just simply wasn’t one there. Regardless, it was uneasy to lose sight of Voo and Ginge as they disappeared around the back of the building. I held my breath as we waited, but they didn’t keep us in suspense for long. First there was the muffled BANG! of fireworks going off in the distance and a moment later, once the cameras had caught up, a bright flash of light on multiple monitors. Two figures clad in black ran past one of the cameras, the one with flaming red hair giving the hackers a cheeky thumbs-up. Red and I scoffed, trying to hold back laughter as we watched them give the guards the run-around. 

“Going in now.” Thero said over the radio in a business-like tone. My eyes wandered over to the cameras monitoring the interior of the hotel. There weren’t any cameras on the top few floors, which meant I couldn’t see the group affectionately named “Bomb Squad” as they descended into the building. “Shit!” My heart sank when I heard that one curse word over the radio. What happened now? I grabbed the receiver away from Red and held down the talk button.

“What is it?” An excruciating silence followed. My eyes raked the monitors, even though I knew there were no cameras anywhere near the roof to tell me what was happening. 

“No, no… it’s fine.” I relaxed upon hearing those last two words. I hadn’t realized how stiff I had made my shoulders, so I rubbed them to relieve some of the tension. It was only then that I realized this was a different voice. Before I could ask, the other woman continued. “It’s fine, Thero just broke the staircase. Way to go.” Shadowrunner’s laugh was cut off when she let go of the talk button. Red plucked the radio from my hands again, looking far less ruffled than I felt.

“You klutzes okay up there?” There was a pause again. I imagined that they were fighting over control of the radio; it seemed like something they would do. If so, then Thero must have won the battle.

“Yes, fine! Didn’t need that staircase anyway.” There was some quiet chuckling in the background from the members of the Bomb Squad. “Amd is going to do down to the first floor now, can you check to make sure it’s clear, Red?” My partner rolled her eyes as she fiddled with her laptop and murmured,

“So now she asks me…” Images of the first floor appeared on a few of the monitors. My eyes swept over them quickly, looking for any sign of movement, and found none. “Looks good Bomb Squad, over and out.” I scoffed at Red’s parting words and reached over to snatch the receiver back from her.

“No one actually says ‘over and out’” My long fingers fiddled with the radio’s antenna as I went back to staring at the monitors. 

“Well they should, it sounds cool.” Red put her feet up again and leaned far back in her chair, causing it to squeak in protest. I didn’t reply, opting to lose myself in my own thoughts while there was a lull in activity. As I thought, I watched from various camera angles as Voo and Ginge split up and ran into the forest to escape the guard’s bullets, throwing fireworks and smoke bombs behind them as they went. It wasn’t long before my observant partner noticed that I wasn’t really paying attention. “What’re you thinking?” She looked sideways at me, her blue eyes piercing through my defenses.

“I dunno… something dumb.” I sighed deeply. This wasn’t exactly the ideal time for a sentimental conversation. 

“I really doubt that.” Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Red cross her arms and turn her body toward me. Clearly she wasn’t about to give this up. I sighed and sunk down further in my chair. She never seemed to understand when someone just didn’t want to talk about something.

“Just… if this goes south, I don’t know what I’ll do. It’s all fine for you, because you’ve got money from your aunt. But if the Salad tanks I’m going to be stuck with two minimum wage, part-time jobs and a kid sister to take care of and I just…” I felt fear tighten my chest, so I took another deep breath. I wasn’t going to cry; I hadn’t cried in many years and wasn’t about to now. But expressing my emotions even to this extent was alarming to me. As a general, unspoken rule we didn’t discuss personal matters with each other in the Salad. So when had it become okay for me to open up to Red like this? I looked up at my partner, seeing her frown and put a finger to her chin as though she were thinking about something important.

“Well, if this does go wrong… and it won’t! But if it does, I could always help you out. At least for a little bit, until you get a proper job.” I sat in a stunned silence for a moment. Was she really doing what I thought she was doing? Offering me money if this plan didn’t work out? This was above and beyond what two partners in crime would do for each other. This was almost like… friendship. I hadn’t even thought that Red might actually consider me a friend, but the more I thought about it, the more I fell in love with the idea. I hadn’t had a genuine friend in ages, possibly forever. An unexpected warmth lifted the tightness in my chest and I smiled, opening my mouth to croak out a “Thank you.”

Before I could even speak though, something hit our van. The force of it shook the entire vehicle and sent a loud noise echoing through the forest around us. Red and I both yelled in surprise and jumped to our feet.

“What was that?!” I asked, despite knowing that Red was just as clueless as me. She shook her head and was about to speak before yet another hit sent us both tumbling to the ground.

“It’s coming from the doors!” Red exclaimed, indicating toward the double doors at the back of the van. The doors didn’t look at all fazed by the abuse; they were military grade and locked from the inside, so I was confident that they wouldn’t break. The monitors, however, were almost all damaged, with some displaying static and others just black screens. The few that had still been in working order were taken care of by the third hit. The only electronic device that wasn’t broken was my laptop, which had taken enough beatings in its lifetime to be considered trustworthy.

Suddenly, the attacker stopped. Red and I sat in silence for a minute, dumbfounded by what had just happened. I slowly crawled to the back of the van, afraid to stand in case I would just get knocked over again, and pressed my ear against the seam between the doors. I heard absolutely nothing. We stood still for a long while, but nothing happened.

“Do you think it was an animal?” Red seemed hopeful, but I shrugged.

“I don’t know. It’s gone quiet though… I wonder what it’s doing?” I pressed my ear even flatter to the door as though I was hoping it would help me to hear better.

“I think it’s gone away.” Red stood up as straight as she could in the low ceiling of the vehicle. “Look, I’ll go out and check.” My head snapped up.

“No!” I held out a hand palm-out, gesturing for her not to move. She didn’t listen though, and came to stand beside me.

“It’s fine, I’ll just have a peek. Can’t stay here forever, can we?” She was right, we would have to get out eventually, if only long enough for one of us to get into the driver’s seat. Red put a hand on my shoulder and guided me away from the doors. I yielded to her touch and backed away, hitting the back of my leg on a chair that had toppled over in all of the shaking. I held my breath as Red eased open the door. At first she only peered out of a small crack but, after seeing and hearing nothing, she stuck her whole head out of the door to look around. My heart skipped a beat when she threw the door wide open and jumped out of the van, peeking around both sides of the vehicle. A cricket let out an indolent chirp in the distance and a few leaves rustled in the wind, but other than these normal sounds of the forest, there was silence. Red turned back to me, her face thrown into relief by the light in the van’s interior. Even though she had put out an aura of confidence, a thin veil of nervous sweat had accumulated on her brow and, now that they were out of danger, her blue eyes were shining with relief. “It’s safe! I don’t see any-”

BANG! 

Wait, what? Had I missed something? Time seemed to be working differently now. One moment Red was giving me the all-clear, and the next she was falling… falling…

My head spun. For some inexplicable reason, my mind went back to middle school. I remembered one time when I was supposed to take a timed test in a class. I remembered how nervous and frazzled I was, and how my teacher had noticed. He came up to me and asked me if I wanted a test-taking tip. I could still hear his kind, soothing voice saying, “Whenever you feel overwhelmed, just close your eyes and count to five. Just for five seconds, let yourself be afraid. You’ll feel much better after, and you won’t even miss the five seconds.” And it had worked. But this time, I couldn’t spare five seconds. Three… maybe. I closed my eyes and started counting.

One. The bang had been a gunshot. I knew the sound of a gun when I heard one. I knew I hadn’t been shot, because if I had been I would have surely felt it by now. So Red was shot. The shooter must have been hiding somewhere that she hadn’t been able to see them.

Two. The big question was, where? Where was Red shot, and could I save her? If I stepped out the door and stopped to help her, I would no doubt be shot too. The best thing I could do was run, and hope that I could distract the shooter’s attention long enough to find someone to help. But where would I run? What if I ran straight into the shooter? But wait… Red was falling on her back, so the shooter must have been facing her. That meant I had to turn left.

Three. Outside, I heard the soft thump of Red’s body, whether it be alive or dead, hit the floor. I sucked in a deep breath of air. Time to run.

I opened my eyes and, with a sudden burst of speed, charged out of the van blindly. I lost my footing on the blood that was already soaking into the ground, making the grass underfoot very slippery. My stumble nearly cost me my life, but luckily the shooter missed and hit the side of the van instead of my head. I wheeled around and ran into the dark cover of the trees, only vaguely realizing that I was running toward the front of the hotel. A male’s voice behind me cursed as he took chase. My pursuer called out something unintelligible to someone else… so he wasn’t alone, then. I weaved between the trees, my heart aggressively pumping adrenalized blood to the muscles in my legs. A tall, thin frame was a huge advantage in this setting, so it wasn’t long before the hunter was left in my dust.

Even though I heard the footsteps fading away behind me, I didn’t stop running. If I stopped, then I would have been forced to think about what had happened. So I kept going, filling my mind with nothing but the thought of escape. Perhaps I thought I could have run all the way back home, back to my sister where we could celebrate a late Christmas dinner. But I never got that far.

The sight of flashing red and blue lights as I burst forth from the trees left me confused and disoriented. I raised an arm to shield my eyes from the harsh strobe light, blinking rapidly to clear my vision. As soon as my eyes adjusted, I could make out the silhouettes of cars and people in uniform. The police? How did they find this place?! My heart lurched when I saw one of the officers turn toward me, pointing me out to a man he was talking to. Thoughts raced through my mind as I tried to think of what to do. Obviously I didn’t want to be caught, but I didn’t have much of a choice. Red was still in the forest, possibly alive, and the police were the only ones who could save her if she was. Besides, I was already out of breath and wouldn’t be able to outrun someone for a second time in a row.

My gaze shifted down to my hand, only just now noticing that I still had the radio clutched in my pale fingers. If anyone had said anything on it recently, I hadn’t noticed. My head turned up again to see three police officers and what looked like a detective running toward me. With a shudder, I raised the radio to my lips and pressed in the talk button.

“The police are here, get out.” Then, with a sudden flash of ingenuity and defiance, I threw the receiver to the ground and stomped on it with all of my strength, using my heel to break the last thread that might have lead the enemy to my colleagues.

~~~

A creaking, groaning, and then a snap. I realized what was happening just before it did, but I was powerless to stop it. A panicked “Shit!” was the only thing I had time to say before the wood underneath me splintered and collapsed. My stomach did a sickening roll as I fell, bringing the whole staircase down with me.

Had I not been caught so off guard, I might have been able to land on my feet. But I’d been more worried about other, more important things to consider that the staircase leading down from the roof may not have been the most stable structure. In my haste to reach out for something solid to support me, I twisted in the air and landed right on my tailbone. An electric shock of pain ran up my spine and my teeth snapped together, making my jaw ache. Before I even fully processed what had happened, crisp laughter rang out through the narrow hallway.

“No, no… it’s fine.” I groaned and brought myself up to a kneeling position, one hand pressed against the wall for support. My eyes focused on my partner, who was standing a few feet away and talking into my radio. I must have dropped it when I fell. “It’s fine, Thero just broke the staircase. Way to go.” Shadowrunner’s high pitched laughter rang out again, but no one else joined in. I recognized it now as her nervous laughter, and the anger that had begun to boil in my blood dissipated. A tall, dark shape loomed behind my partner without even cracking a smile, looking frankly bored by the whole situation. Meanwhile, a blonde-haired woman with glasses that were a little too large for her face held out a hand to me. I accepted the help grudgingly and allowed her to pull me to my feet.

“You okay Thero?” Chirp’s concerned tone irritated me, for some reason. I almost preferred Shadowrunner’s laughter.

“I’m fine.” I pulled my hand out of Chirp’s grasp, disgruntled. Only then did I notice the remains of the staircase lying in a heap next to the three big jugs full of liquid. I was mildly embarrassed that the staircase held strong when Chirp had been transporting heavy jugs of gasoline down it, but broke the moment I stepped foot on it. I brushed the thought aside, just hoping that Shadowrunner wouldn’t latch on to that as source material to tease me about. 

My eyes snapped up again when I heard the white noise of the radio in Shadowrunner’s hands. A familiar voice crackled to life,

“You klutzes okay up there?” My patience was wearing very thin; I hated being asked the same question twice, especially when it was a question of my health. Without a word, I marched over to Shadowrunner and ripped the radio out of her hand, ignoring her protests.

“Yes, fine! Didn’t need that staircase anyway.” This time, Shadowrunner’s chuckle was one of genuine amusement. Its soft sound calmed me, if only slightly. I continued talking without consulting the rest of my team. It was time we moved on from the broken staircase, I had decided. “Amd is going to do down to the first floor now, can you check to make sure it’s clear, Red?” There was a moment of silence during which the hacker was, presumably, typing away on a computer before her voice returned.

“Looks good Bomb Squad, over and out.” I rolled my eyes at Red’s use of a cliché phrase, but didn’t reply. My attention turned instead to the tall, looming figure who stood behind Shadowrunner. Amducious looked back at me, his sharp eyes seeming to scrutinize me. 

“You sure you want to go alone?” I asked, skeptically. One of the conditions of Amd helping us on this crucial mission was that he be allowed to work on his own. It made me uneasy, since he didn’t exactly have a look that screamed “trustworthy.” But Shadowrunner seemed convinced that his word was good, and that had been enough for me.

“I’m sure.” He shifted his weight, drawing my attention to the backpack that was slung low over his shoulders. It didn’t seem like much, but he had assured me that the explosives in that pack were enough to leave the first floor of the hotel unrecognizable.

“Right, well, take these then.” I fished in my pockets for another handheld radio receiver and a small, silver key. The purpose of the receiver went without saying; it was imperative that we keep lines of communication open when on such an important mission. The key was one that Squid had recovered from her foray into the B-Team headquarters. It was the key to GenerikB’s filing cabinet, where Amd was meant to hide the explosives in case anyone happened to walk through the lobby before the petrol was ready. Amd took the key and receiver, but held up a finger as if telling me to wait. He then dug in his own pockets, pulling out a small, metal device with a tempting red button on its front.

“This is the detonator. It won’t work until I’ve finished arming the bomb but be careful with it.” I bristled, annoyed that he was speaking to me as if I were a child. I reached out my hand and snatched the detonator from his grasp; pale, moonlit fingers a stark contrast to the shiny surface of the metal. “Hit the button three times in rapid succession to activate it. I would strongly advise waiting until you’re well away from the building, unless you want it to collapse in on you.” Amd’s gruff voice was all-business, and my nod was just as professional.

“Good luck, then.” Without another word, Amd stalked off down the hallway at a leisurely pace, as though this was something he did on a daily basis. I watched him go, worry creasing my brow. The two other women and I only stared blank-faced as Amd vanished through the door at the end of the hallway, the shadows he’d been casting with his flashlight disappearing as abruptly as he had.

For some reason unbeknownst to me, my brain chose that exact moment to send itself into a frenzied panic. If I was being honest with myself, this was a fear that had been slowly building since this night had begun. I liked to project a tone of confidence, especially since I was chosen by Kawa to lead this mission, but to be blunt I was well and truly out of my league. I mean… I robbed banks. Jewelry stores. Even gas stations, when I was really desperate. But blowing up huge, mafia-run hotels with questionable explosives and a million things that could go wrong? That was decidedly not in the job description. I could die. Any one of us could die. Hell, all of us could die. What was Kawa thinking, putting me in charge?!

With practiced ease, I recognized the oncoming panic attack and took the necessary precautions to prevent it from getting out of control. A little fear was healthy; expected, even, in this situation. But I had a job to do, and emotions would only get in my way. I concentrated my efforts on smoothing my face into a stoic mask, determined not to let any feelings leak out into my expression. Relaxing my facial muscles wasn’t nearly enough to distract my mind, however, so I went through the motions of listing off random, dinosaur-related facts. Theropoda are a suborder of bipedal, primarily carnivorous dinosaurs. They first appeared during the Carnian age about 230 million years ago…

“Well, let’s go then! What’re we waiting for?” Shadowrunner’s loud, sing-song tone interrupted my thoughts quite rudely. I snapped out of the trance and turned toward my always-impatient partner, who already had one of the three jugs of gasoline in her hands. She looked like she was having a hard time carrying it, but was struggling not to show it. I rolled my eyes but had a grin plastered on my face nonetheless.

“Right. Any suggestions Chirp, or just go wild?” I asked as I reached for a jug, the liquid sploshing around haphazardly inside. It was heavier than I had anticipated and was already causing a strain on my muscles. I shifted my weight, trying to ignore the burn.

“No, don’t just ‘go wild’!” Chirp sounded exasperated as she grabbed her own container of fuel. “Remember, we need this stuff to last us. We haven’t got much… I’d say maybe five floors for each jug? So use it sparingly.” With a concerted effort, she heaved the plastic canister up to waist level. “Try to make a thin line down the hallways, like this.” Carefully, Chirp tipped the nozzle of the jug forward until a steady trickle of gasoline poured out of it. Then, with a quick, deliberate stride, she trailed the liquid all the way down to the end of the hallway with Shadowrunner and I in her wake.

“Is that all?” My partner, who had been so eager to get to burn down a building, sounded disappointed. Chirp shrugged, lowering her canister again.

“What were you expecting? We don’t need much, just enough to cause some structural damage. Although, if you want to splatter some on the walls, it wouldn’t be a bad idea.” I glanced sideways at Shadowrunner, who sighed heavily as she shifted her jug full of fuel into her other hand. It was easy to follow her train of thought; she was thinking that dragging the gasoline around was way too much effort and not nearly as rewarding as she had thought it would be. Plus, we wouldn’t even be around to watch the place burn to the ground. I held back a chuckle and instead nudged her on the arm as if to say, You did sign up for this, no backing out now. Shadowrunner blew a harsh puff of air out her nose in response, and I rolled my eyes at her yet again. We knew each other so well by now, there was no need for words in many of our conversations.

“Alright, let’s go. Amd’s probably done with his part already and we haven’t even started ours!” I hesitated for a moment, thinking about what would be the best plan of attack. “I’ll take the bottom floors, Shadowrunner can take the middle, and Chirp, you might as well take the top since you’ve already started. I’ll take the radio with me… just shout if you need something. We’ll meet back on the second floor when we’re done.” Selfishly, I had wanted to take the bottom floors so that I could be closer to the exit if anything were to go awry. Plus it would give me an opportunity to check up on Amd, if I deemed it necessary. Chirp gave me a salute, making me unsure about whether she was mocking me or if she was actually serious. My question was answered when she shot me a cheeky grin and headed off to splash gasoline on the walls of the top floor. I couldn’t think of anything snide to throw back at her, so instead I clipped the radio onto my pants, shouldered past my partner, and pushed open the door to the stairwell, ready to begin the tedious task of lighting this hotel on fire.

As nervous as I had been earlier, the monotony of sprinkling fuel on the posh carpeting of the abandoned lower floors quickly calmed me down. It became almost a cathartic release, listening to the sound of liquid hitting the ground, interrupted only by the few times when I had to return to the stairwell to start on a new floor. The task became easier as the jug became lighter, and before I knew it I found that there was only a thin layer of gasoline left in my canister. I swirled it around absentmindedly, struggling to pull myself out of the trance I had settled in. The fumes from the gas must have been muddling my mind. I shook my head to clear it, dumping the leftover fuel onto the nearest door before jogging back to the stairs for the last time.

Just as I had reached out my hand and set it on the cold metal doorknob, a shrill scream permeated the air, followed closely by the harsh bang of a series of gunshots. I paused, waiting as if to confirm whether or not I was hallucinating. But the sound of Shadowrunner shouting my name spurred me to action. I threw open the door and launched myself down the stairs three at a time, my mind racing even faster than my feet could carry me. Shadowrunner and Chirp must have made it down to the second floor before I could… and they’d met trouble along the way. Big trouble, if the number of gunshots I was hearing was anything to go by.

Right when my foot stepped onto the landing of the second floor, the door was flung open. My hand flew to my hip, but before I could even reach my handgun I recognized the people in front of me as my partners in crime. Chirp slammed the door shut behind them and leaned into it, panting heavily.

“Oh, Thero… good of you to join us.” The heavy sarcasm did not go unnoticed, but my mind was otherwise occupied with more pressing matters to grace it with a response. Namely, Shadowrunner’s blood that was beginning to stain the ground where she stood. I rushed over to her but, never having bothered to learn first aid, I didn’t know what to do with myself. My head swam as I looked down at her leg, which seemed to be the source of the blood.

“What happened?” Even I was surprised at the amount of worry and concern laced into my own voice. Shadowrunner waved a hand dismissively, but still wrapped an arm around my shoulders and leaned into me heavily.

“Got shot, and it’ll happen again if we don’t get a move on!” As if on cue, a loud BANG! shook my eardrums as someone threw their body against the stairwell door. I carefully extracted myself from under Shadowrunner, allowing her to lean against the railing while I helped Chirp to hold back the door. My mind raced with possibilities. If we let go of the door and made a run for it, we would surely get shot in the back as we ran. If we opened the door to confront them, there was no telling if we would make it out alive. But we couldn’t stand here forever, because they would either force their way through the door or send another group to go around and attack us from a different angle. We were well and truly trapped, unless…

My attention focused on the gasoline that I had poured on this very floor only moments earlier. I’d made sure to dribble a little on the stairwell, too, and now I silently thanked my past self for being so clever. Another bang from the other side of the door forced me to focus again.

“Chirp, light the gas on fire.” The smaller woman looked at me with confusion.

“What, now?” I rolled my eyes, impatient. Why couldn’t people just follow orders?

“Yes, now! The fire will distract them and we can run downstairs!" Without another word, Chirp spun around so that her back was pressed against the door and fumbled in her pockets for a box of matches. Meanwhile, the radio at my hip buzzed with life. Having completely forgotten that it existed, I jumped at the sound. The voice on the other end of the receiver was unmistakably Amd’s, seeing how he was the only male on the team today. It was difficult to make out what he was saying over the heavy static and shouting coming from the other end of the door, but the general gist was clear.

“You’ve got company… police surrounding the building. I’m already out… just thought you should know.” I blinked heavily, uncomprehending of the information at first. My gaze lifted up unconsciously to look at Shadowrunner, who was sitting on the stairs tying her jacket to her bleeding leg like a bandage. She was always the one I looked to on those rare occasions when I simply didn’t know what to do, but the pained yet focused expression on her face told me that she was in no position to help me at the moment.

I should have called Chirp off, that was my first mistake. As it was, I was too distracted with the news that the building was surrounded by the police to concern myself with her actions. But, since she hadn’t heard the radio transmission, she followed my orders and lit our world on fire. I yelped and jumped sideways as the ground beneath my feet was set aflame.

“Are you insane?!” I took my anger and panic out at Chirp, though I knew it wasn’t her fault that the police had somehow found this place. If Amd was to be trusted, that is. Maybe he’s lying to sabotage the mission. The wild thought appealed to my hysteria, but it was quickly shut down by another voice on the radio.

“The police are here, get out.” Dread filled every fiber of my being at the sound of Delta’s voice confirming my nightmare. We couldn’t escape through the front door, as we had planned. Not only that, but who knew what the B-Team guards were doing now that the building was set ablaze. Speaking of, Chirp and Shadowrunner seemed awfully concerned about the fire… they were shouting something about smoke, and Chirp was tugging on my arm in an attempt to get me to move. Didn’t they understand? The fire was the least of our problems. Though I had to admit, its heat and the nauseating stench of burning gasoline were enough to slowly pull me out of my anxiety-induced trance that I hadn’t realized I had been in. I shook my head vigorously, partly to clear it and partly to tell my partners that we couldn’t go the way they were telling me to run.

“Didn’t you hear the radio? The police are here, idiots! We can’t go through the front door anymore.” Chirp stopped pulling me forward and blinked, a look of horror spreading on her face. Of all the things we had planned for, the police hadn’t been one of them. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Shadowrunner’s expression, but instead flattened myself against the wall to avoid contact with the fire at my feet.

“The back door.” I almost didn’t hear Shadowrunner’s voice over the growing roar of the fire, but when I did my attention snapped toward her. “Ask Blue if the police are guarding the back door.” Of course! While my brain was muddled by smoke, Shadowrunner’s was as sharp as ever. I didn’t tell her that, though, merely nodded and lifted the receiver up to my lips.

“Blue! Is there anyone at the back door? Can we come out that way?” An excruciating silence followed, but then,

“No, no one here! Oh, wait…” There wasn’t even enough time for a triumphant smile to form on my lips before her change in tone erased my joy. “There’s someone coming around to the back now… wait, I think that’s Kurt! Yeah, it is.” The hope returned again, though just a hesitant spark this time.

“Just one, then?” If it was only one detective, then surely Blue would have no problem with getting him out of the way so that the three of them could escape. As annoying as I found her when she took so long to set up her sniper rifle, there was no denying that she was a crack shot. Whatever ritual she went through before shooting seemed to work, and I wasn’t about to question it now that our lives depended on it.

“Yeah, just Kurt.” I thought I detected a hint of unease in her voice, but it was difficult to tell for sure when said voice was competing for my attention with the crackling and spitting of a menacing fire.

“Well shoot him, then! We’re on our way.” I leaned forward to grab Shadowrunner under the arm, pulling her up with a grunt. “You think you can manage the stairs?” My gaze wandered down to her leg, which didn’t look quite so bad when it was wrapped up in a jacket. She nodded vigorously and shot me a reassuring smile, obviously trying to calm me down. Were my frayed nerves really so obvious? 

“It’s just one flight, I think I can manage.” Just as she hooked her arm around my neck, I heard the unmistakable sound of a gunshot ringing through the air. That’s Kurt gone, then. I assured myself confidently. I was sure it would feel strange later, not having the quiet detective around to mock and tease. But I didn’t deal with him all that often, anyway, and it wasn’t much of a loss.

I had managed to help Shadowrunner hobble down only three steps before the sound of white noise appeared over the radio again. And that’ll be Blue, confirming that she made the shot. I felt myself relax… well, as much as one could when a building was burning down all around you. The fire had gotten out of control by that point; having exhausted the catalyst that was the gasoline and now was spreading to other parts of the building. But we would be out of there soon, no need to worry…

“I missed.” Beside me, I felt Shadowrunner jerk to a stop, the movement causing her to wobbly dangerously on one leg. Chirp cried out, whether in anger or dismay I didn’t know. Slowly, as if in a dream, I spoke into the receiver.

“Say that again.” My tone was dangerous, even I could tell. If she was joking… there would be hell to pay. Now was not the time. And if she wasn’t joking… well, I couldn’t be held responsible for my actions.

“I missed, I’m sorry.” Pure rage boiled up inside of me, causing the arm that was around Shadowrunner’s waist to tighten like a vice around her.

“Well try again!” I hissed into the radio, venomous spit dotting the receiver. I felt my face turn red as the panic and fear began to take over in place of anger.

“I can’t! He’s hiding now… you’ll have to find another way out.” In one last, surge of fury, I threw the radio as hard as I could against the wall.

“FUCK!” That one curse was all I could say on the subject. I pulled my hand away from Shadowrunner and ran it through my hair instead, mind racing. There was no point in being angry right now, or even afraid. Being upset would only have made it more difficult, so I forced myself to be rational. It was a huge effort, but eventually I came to the only possible conclusion, “We have to go to the roof. It’s the only way out.” The fire escape ran down the side of the hotel, so maybe we could still get out without the police noticing us. Turning ourselves in simply wasn’t an option, so in my mind this was the only choice left to us. Neither Shadowrunner nor Chirp thought it wise to argue with me, so to the roof we went.

There was just one, small problem with this shotty plan, and that was that the building was burning to the ground. Oh, and also, Shadowrunner only had one functional leg. After somehow managing to hop, drag, and otherwise maneuver her around the fire and up the first flight of stairs, I knew that we would have to change tactics. Without a word, I hoisted my partner up onto my shoulders in a fireman’s carry. She yelped in pain as I did so; no doubt I had jarred her leg in the process. But it was the only way to get her up the stairs in a reasonable amount of time. Even though she was fairly light, it was extremely difficult to struggle up the stairs with her weight on my shoulders. The position that we were in forced my head down and placed agonizing strain on my neck and back, but the desperation of our situation gave me enough strength to make it up a few flights of stairs. Eventually, though, Chirp and I had to switch off.

We soldiered on like this for what felt like hours in the blistering heat, though in reality the time was probably more accurately measured in minutes. The smoke from the fire became thicker and thicker as we ascended, forcing us to lift our shirts up to cover our faces. By the time we reached the top floor again, we were exhausted. The fire hadn’t reached up this high yet; it was irrational to think that all of the fuel would ignite at once. There was even some relief from the smoke up here, since most of it was being vented out through the hole in the roof.

Frankly, it was a miracle that we had ever managed to get up to the top floor without the stairs or ourselves collapsing, but now that we were here we were faced with yet another problem. To revise a previous statement… my first mistake hadn’t been letting Chirp light the building on fire. My first mistake had been breaking the staircase that led from the roof.

I swore under my breath, removing my sweaty shirt from its position covering my face in order to get a better look at the opening in the ceiling. One quick look around told me that there was nothing in the vicinity that we could use to help us up; the hallway was utterly bare. My head tilted back to gaze longingly at the portal to freedom above me. It was so tantalizingly close, I could almost taste the fresh air on my tongue.

“Thero, you’re the tallest… Chirp and I can boost you up.” Having been put down by Chirp, Shadowrunner limped over to stand next to me. I looked at her skeptically, wondering how in the world she thought she was going to bare my weight. Chirp came to stand under the hole too, and the pair of them wordlessly offered up their hands for me to stand on. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. No way was this going to work, but I might as well try. I placed my right foot on Chirp’s hands, choosing to lean onto her shoulder instead of Shadowrunner’s. I felt her wince and shake as I put all of my weight on her in order to put my left foot in Shadowrunner’s hands. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised that Chirp was able to hold my weight; after all, she had carried Shadowrunner at least half of the way up the stairs. I made an effort to lean more heavily on my right side as my two teammates hoisted me up, the effort of which elicited many grunts and groans from the pair. To my shock, they succeeded in getting me high enough that I could clutch the ledge that separated the outside world from this hotel that we had turned into an inferno.

It was very fortunate that I was gifted with a strong upper body, but even so it was a few minutes before I was able to drag myself onto the roof. Once I got there, I simply laid sprawled out on my back, gulping down the crisp night air as if it were water and I was dying of thirst. My arms felt like jelly and my neck ached, but I still had to muster whatever remaining strength I had to help my teammates up. I crawled grudgingly over to the ledge again to be greeted with the sight of Chirp and Shadowrunner arguing.

“No Chirp, you have to go next! You won’t be able to lift me high enough on your own-”

“You’re going next and that’s final! Either that, or neither of us go.” Chirp crossed her arms stubbornly and planted her feet firmly on the ground. I silently agreed with her, but didn’t have the energy to voice my opinion. After having a short staring contest, Shadowrunner gave in.

“Alright, fine, but it’s not going to work.” Chirp held out her hands for the other woman to step into and I let my arm hang limply over the edge, ready for my partner to grab onto it. I watched warily as Shadowrunner put one foot in Chirp’s hands, the smaller woman’s knees almost buckling under the pressure. It was one thing to have Shadowrunner’s weight evenly distributed across her shoulders, but quite another to have it focused on a single point. Still though, she managed to hold her up. My heart sank, though, when Shadowrunner reached for my hand and fell short by several inches. “I need to be higher, Chirp!” She grunted, fresh beads of sweat beginning to form on her brow. All of this moving around must have been painful on her wounded leg. I tried to reach down farther, but I knew that, even if she could have reached me, I wouldn’t have been able to pull her up with my entire torso hanging over the edge.

“You’re slipping!” Chirp yelped before setting Shadowrunner down roughly, barely managing to keep her upright as she landed back down on solid ground.

“See, I told you it wouldn’t work.” Shadowrunner huffed and wiped the back of her hand over her forehead. “Just let me lift you, I can manage it.” Chirp looked from Shadowrunner to me and, when I offered no opinion either way, nodded.

“Alright, fine.” There seemed to be something unspoken between the two of them, but I was too exhausted to understand what it was. What did it matter which of them went first? We needed to hurry if we were going to get out at all. After that moment of hesitation, Chirp put her foot in Shadowrunner’s outstretched hand. The woman with the injured leg wobbled precariously under Chirp’s weight, but handled the task of lifting her with more ease than the other way around. I stretched downward, my fingers wrapping around Chirp’s hand. With a great heave, I jerked back and lifted her up. My shoulder popped out of place in the process, but the end result was both Chirp and I sprawled on the ground again, panting. I took a shorter rest than my companion, anxious now to get Shadowrunner up here. I got so far as to reach down with my hand before realizing something so obvious that had evaded my exhausted mind.

How was Shadowrunner going to get up?

“Jump.” I grunted, sliding further down into the hole. Shadowrunner gave me that look… the one that said You’re an idiot. “Chirp, grab my legs.” I looked over my shoulder at the arsonist, who gave me an incredulous look of her own before obeying my orders. I shimmied forward, dropping myself further into the hole.

“Don’t, Thero. You know I can’t jump with this gimpy leg.” She gave me a little smile. It felt so out of place in this situation.

“Well then I’ll come down there! I’ll give you a lift up!” Shadowrunner’s smile disappeared.

“Don’t you dare let her, Chirp!” I felt Chirp’s grip on my legs tighten. Fear clutched at my chest. “You two have to go find help… a rope, or something.” Blood was beginning to rush to my head, but I made no move to extract myself from the hole in the ceiling. Shadowrunner’s grin returned, more confident this time. Or was it forced? Difficult to tell when I was hanging upside-down. “I’ll wait here. Don’t worry.” And with that, my partner hopped backwards until she was leaning against a wall, then slowly sunk down to sit on the musty carpeting. A sigh of relief escaped her lips at being able to rest both of her legs. I hated leaving her, but I didn’t seem to have a choice. With Chirp’s help, I pulled myself out of the hole and stood up.

“We’re coming back for you.” My tone was resolute and offered no room for argument. Shadowrunner offered me a weak smile before pulling her shirt up over her mouth again to block out the thin layer of smoke.

“I look forward to it.” I searched her eyes, almost desperately, for anything that might have given me a clue as to what she was thinking, but I found nothing aside from weary exhaustion. Soon, Chirp’s fingers were wrapped around my wrist, tugging me away from the open hatch in the rooftop. My mind was in a blurry haze as we descended as quietly and quickly as possible down the fire escape. I allowed Chirp to lead me forward as I occupied myself with the task of trying to think of where to get a rope on short notice. Perhaps we could get a particularly long stick from the surrounding wilderness. Yes, that was what we would do.

Before I knew it, Chirp and I were on solid ground again. I could see the vibrant red and blue lights of multiple police cars flashing dimly on the dark, damp grass. Chirp peeked around the corner of the hotel before tugging me forward. We ran silently into the forest, all but invisible behind the cover of the trees.

“Chirp, listen. Look for a big stick... we can lower it down into the hole and pull Shadowrunner out. It might be hard with her leg, but it’s better than trying to find a rope out here, don’t you think?” The sad look in Chirp’s eyes was making my skin crawl, and her firm grip on my wrist made me even more uneasy. “Don’t you think, Chirp?” I repeated my question, annoyed now that she was keeping me from looking for a suitable stick. Maybe she was in shock or something, and I wouldn’t blame her… but now really wasn’t the time.

“Sorry Thero… we’re not going back.” I blinked, but Chirp continued before I could say anything. “We can’t go back now, it would take too long. Even if the police didn’t see us, the building is unstable. It would collapse before we could get out. Can you hear me, Thero?” I stared off at a point somewhere above her shoulder, my voice sounding very distant in my own head.

“We’re going back. Get a stick.” Chirp grabbed my other wrist with her free hand. I tried to pull away, but didn’t have the strength.

“Thero, I gave her the detonator. When we were lifting you onto the roof, I picked your pocket. I thought I was going to be the one to stay behind, and I would have blown up the building from the inside. But when I couldn’t lift Shadowrunner… I gave it to her. Slipped it into her coat pocket. She’s smart, I’m sure she’s found it by now.” No… no, she couldn’t have. I shook my head violently, not caring about the headache it gave me. “I’m sorry Thero, but we should get far away before-”

“NO! WE’RE GOING BACK, DO YOU HEAR ME? I WON’T LEAVE-” BOOM! The explosion seemed to rip through my entire body, rendering me momentarily deaf and knocking both Chirp and I clean off our feet. I felt a rush of hot air and ash wash over me, coating us both in soot. As soon as I was able, I staggered to my feet and fumbled forward until I broke out from the forest. In front of me, where the hotel had stood only moments ago, there was only a lonely pile of debris.


	9. Blue

The night was dark. I moved through it as if in a dream. I knew the cold air was freezing my skin, but I never actually felt it. The only thing I felt was fear… fear of being caught. It was unlike any fear I had ever felt before. Not like the paranoia I felt after committing a crime, that was different. I never feared for my life then, only for my freedom. Now, though, I knew that if I was caught they would kill me. Well perhaps that was an exaggeration, as they had no way of knowing that I was running away to begin with. I could always lie and say I was on a mission; I was rather good at lying. Especially to myself.

As I got further and further away from the Salad base, my heart rate slowed steadily until it was at a reasonable pace. At that point, I slowed to a walk, then finally a halt. I could still go back. I looked over my shoulder, intrigued by the self-proposed idea. After giving the decision much deliberation, it had seemed in my mind that I had broken all ties with the Salad. But in reality, no one even knew that I had been considering leaving. I could very well go back, and no one would ever be the wiser. But deep inside, I knew this was foolish thinking. Weeks had been spent torturing myself over this decision; I couldn’t go back on it now. This was the right thing to do, I knew it.

I began to walk again, down the backroads of the city that I knew so well. As I walked, I reviewed again my reasons for leaving, as if to convince myself that I had made the right choice. There was the obvious reason, that my life was in direct danger while I stayed in contact with the Salad. Thero blamed me for the death of her partner, and rightly so. She would not hesitate to murder me for it if given the chance, and I knew this. The real question here was: did I care? What was I living for, anyway? Might it be better to just take my chances with Thero? The end would come eventually anyway, no reason to postpone the inevitable. But the fact of the matter was that I simply did not want to die. Some primitive part of me still clung desperately to life, and I was forced to oblige it.

The second reason was perhaps more complex, and it was that a part of myself had noticeably changed after the raid. I didn’t claim to understand it, but I tried to explain it to myself anyway. I believe it started after I made the conscious decision not to kill Kurt. Maybe I went soft, but after that moment I felt the deaths of my fellow Salad members as if they had been physical blows. Of course, there had been deaths before now, but they had never affected me as these did. Shadowrunner’s was especially painful, since it came with the knowledge that I knowingly caused it. I felt so much pain at the deaths of these people I barely knew, and yet everyone else around me seemed impassive. No one cared about their fellow teammates, with the exception perhaps of the dead’s close partners. I realized then, as if in a stroke of genius, that this was how my victim’s families felt about me. I was the impassive bastard who didn’t give a damn about the people I shot. In a way, every human being was my teammate, and who was I to be so cold to them?

I jerked to a stop, suddenly aware of where my feet had carried me. I was in front of the house of the one, the only, Detective Kurt Mac. He was the catalyst to all of this, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when fate dropped me off here. The lights were out in the quaint little house, indicating that everyone had long since gone to bed. My blue eyes gazed from window to window, wondering what rooms each of them belonged to. I knew Kurt had a young son, did one of these windows lead to his room? It felt creepy searching for the bedroom window of a child, and so I stopped. Instead, I searched for Kurt’s room, and found it almost instantly. His shades were only half drawn, so I could just see the shape of a king-sized bed in a room that barely fit it. On a whim, I tugged at the window and, much to my surprise, found it to open easily at my touch. He didn’t lock his window?! He had some nerve, or else was very foolish. Probably both.

Slowly, quietly, I climbed inside of his house. The motion sent a shiver up my spine; I was certain I would be caught. I bit my lip then wondered what exactly I was going to do now that I was in the home of the person I’ve both despised and been fascinated by for so many years. I tip-toed up to his bed, being more dramatic about it than I needed to be for my own amusement. My heart seemed to melt when I my eyes adjusted to the light level of the room. There they were, Kurt and his wife, huddled together in sleep and not even using three fourths of their giant bed. Kurt’s arms were around his love, as though he fell asleep trying to protect her. Tears welled up in my eyes at the thought, and I blinked them back stubbornly. 

Truth be told, this was the real reason for my leaving the Salad. I was jealous of Kurt. I so badly wanted what he had; a home, a family, an honest job that didn’t require him to curl up inside of himself to guard his true identity. I yearned to have someone who loved me enough to hold me while we slept together, to stay by my side even when things just didn’t work out. I could never have gotten that at the Salad.

I forgot myself and sniffled loudly, quickly clasping a hand over my mouth as though I could have taken back the noise. My heart raced again as I waited, a deer frozen in the headlights, for some punishment for my mistake. But none came. The couple didn’t stir, and I slowly calmed myself down until my mind was sound enough for me to wonder again why I was here. Maybe I should have just left after that close call, so that I wouldn’t make another mistake and get caught. But I felt as though I had to do something… one doesn’t break into someone’s home and just leave everything as it was. I thought briefly about stealing some money, but quickly dispelled the idea. I had enough cash from my recent jobs to get me on my feet, so there was no reason to steal from someone who I cared about. Perhaps I should leave him a note? But no… words would be inefficient for what I had to say, and I was sure to accidentally leave something out.

With a sudden stroke of inspiration, I quietly removed my backpack and dug into the front pocket. There was only a handful of flower petals left; I had been planning to buy some more soon. That wouldn’t be necessary now, though. I dug out all of the remaining, crumpled blue petals out of the bottom of the bag and tossed them all into the air, watching as they floated down slowly. A few landed on Kurt’s bed, but most settled gently onto the carpet. I realized then, that leaving my calling card at the foot of my detective’s bed might scare him a little. The thought made me giggle silently. Let him be scared… he made my life difficult enough in these past years, I might as well mess with him one last time. Eventually, though, I hope he figured out the real meaning of the petals.

As I moved to leave the house, a sudden thought struck me. I hastily moved to touch my eye, and barely refrained from swearing when I poked myself roughly in the pupil. I then removed my blue-tinted contacts, more careful the second time around. In the darkness, I could hardly see the contacts against my fingertips, but could feel their light, moist form on my skin. My vision felt suddenly clear; I hadn’t realized how scratched up the contact lenses had become. Where I was going, I wouldn’t be needing them anymore. The blue eyes were a lie, and I was done lying now. I would make due with my green eyes from here on out. I dropped the contacts carelessly on the floor, wondering numbly whether Kurt would ever even find them. It was entirely possible that they would just get sucked up by a vacuum cleaner, never to be seen again. I was okay with that. With my business taken care of, I climbed silently back through the window, not bothering to close it or even look back. 

I didn’t think about where I was going physically, letting my feet carry me wherever they may through the suburban area. However, I did think an awful lot about where I was going in the long run. The first step was finding work. How did one find a job? In the past, people had come to me with work that they wanted done. It felt foreign to me to be looking for work myself. It was a habit of mine to hoard money, so I figured I had enough of it to last me a few months while I figured out what to do with myself. It would be important to settle down far away from here, as the Salad was sure to go looking for me once they realized I had left. Perhaps I would change my name, too… not that I ever told anyone in the Salad my real name, but it was better to be safe than sorry. 

There was one thing that was still nagging at me, though. One person, rather. Of everyone in the Salad, the only person who I felt I was betraying by leaving was Voo. She was the only one in that hell-hole who genuinely cared about people, though I was blind to it at the time. Before, I had mistaken the caring for naivety, and maybe it was a little. Maybe there was even some good inside of everyone at the Salad, but if so then they hid it very well. Voo though… I felt that she didn’t belong there. I resolved to go back for her eventually. Not now, not while I was so vulnerable and lost. But once I was settled and people forgot about me, that was when I would go back and try to convince her to leave. I somehow doubted she would heed my advice, but I had to try for my own sake , if nothing else. 

As I walked aimlessly, I came to the top of a hill. It overlooked a vast complex of roads and houses, all flowing together seamlessly. In a way, the organization was soothing to me. Already, there were cars littering the streets. Off to work early, whether because they had a long commute or were just dedicated, I would never know. Was Kurt in one of those cars? Had he already woken up to find my flower petals and, seeing that everything was still in order, shook off the strange happening and went to work as usual? The thought made me strangely happy. It was good, healthy even, for him to forget me. I would never forget him, and that was enough.

I sat down in the grass of someone’s yard, someone who was lucky enough to own a home that sat right on the top of this beautiful hill. As the sun rose of the grid of streets and suburban houses, I felt hope fill my chest. Everything was going to be alright.


End file.
